Posts Tagged ‘fruity’

Remember November?

Neither do I. It’s all kind of a giant blur of roast turkey, wedding cake, and contractions.

And pomegranate juice. The lovely people over at POM Wonderful contacted me and sent a case of pomegranate juice accompanied by more facts and figures than I have fingers and toes to count. Bottom line: This stuff is insanely good for you. To say the least. (Mosey on over to their site, and I’ll let them handle all the physiological nitty-gritty.)

So, I gathered a handful of recipes, placed my juice in the fridge, and told my husband not to drink it, because, hey, I had big plans. But that night, we decided to open just one of the little bottles of juice. Just one. Just to try it out. Surely I wouldn’t need all 12 bottles for baking, right?

And that’s how it started. Every couple of days we would buckle, and another little bottle would disappear from the fridge, and I would shave down my list of pomegranate recipes. At last we were left with one bottle. One little bottle of pomegranate juice, sitting all by his lonesome.

My husband asked me several times if he could just go ahead and drink it. No. Are you sure? Yes. Please? No. Part of it? No.

That was two months ago. Two months that little bottle has been sitting in the fridge. Two months my husband has been pestering me to let him finish it off. Two months I have said no, and secretly wondered when I would get around to it.

Valentines Day. That’s when I would get around to it. Here we are, two months later.

So, Happy Valentines Day! I brought you pink cupcakes. Last Valentines Day I brought you pink cupcakes too, but they weren’t as cute, and the photography was embarrassing. And I didn’t bother including any recipes. This time around I’m doing it up right.

Golden Vanilla Cupcakes

2 cups sugar

3-1/4 cups flour

2-1/2 teaspoons baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 cup butter, room temperature

1-1/4 cup milk, room temperature

1 Tablespoon vanilla extract

4 large eggs

1/4 cup vegetable oil

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. Line muffin tin with papers.

In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the sugar, flour, baking powder, and salt. Add the butter and beat until mixture looks sandy. Combine the milk and vanilla and add to the flour mixture all at once. Add the vegetable oil, and mix at low speed just until incorporated. Scrape the sides of the bowl. Add the eggs one at a time, beating between each egg. Scrape the sides of the bowl again and beat the mixture on low for 30 seconds.

Transfer the batter to the cupcake papers, filling about 2/3 full. Bake for 20-25 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center of a cupcake comes out clean. Remove the muffin tin from the oven and place the cupcakes on a rack to cool. Make sure cupcakes are cooled completely before frosting them.

POM Cream Cheese Frosting

adapted from www.pomwonderful.com

1-1/2 cups Pomegranate juice

4 oz. butter, room temperature

8 oz. cream cheese, room temperature

14 oz. powdered sugar

Directions:

In a small saucepan, reduce the pomegranate juice, over low heat, down to 3 fl. oz. Allow to cool.

Place butter and cream cheese in a large mixing bowl and cream together until soft and fluffy. Turn the speed down to low and slowly add the powdered sugar and pomegranate juice reduction. Mix until the sugar is fully incorporated.

Place icing into a piping bag with a round or star tip, and decorate cupcakes.

Here we are. Summer’s last hurrah.

I’m fully aware that we’re well into autumn these days. And to be honest, I’m one of those silly people who excitedly counts down the hours until the end of summer. Pumpkins! Scarves! Crunchy leaves! Oh, and highs in the low 70s, please. Thank you.

Summer ends every year, and I kiss it goodbye without a single regret.

Except one: No more fresh peaches. I won’t see plump, fresh, blushing peaches for another 10 months! It’s a mourning process I have to go through every year.

And so, with the last of the last of the summer peaches, I pay tribute to… well, to the last of the last of the summer peaches. May we have many good times in 2010.

I know, this is a terrible time to come out with a recipe like this, since the peach crop has practically disappeared, and pumpkin or apple recipes are all the rage now (which I love). But hey, if you have a hankering for peach crisp at a less-than-opportune time of year, don’t forget that frozen peaches can be a pretty decent substitute.

This recipe calls for Instant ClearJel, which is one the loves of my baking life. Instant thickening! No need to guess if you have too much or too little! No more runny pie filling! No weird aftertaste! Instant ClearJel to the rescue.

This fruit crisp pretty much knocked my socks off. Streusel topping in general tends to do that to me, but the peach and raspberry combination was out of this world. Add those together, plus a dollop of whipped cream, and you’ve got yourself one mighty tasty dessert.

Peach Raspberry Crisp

adapted from Bakers’ Banter

Ingredients for filling:

4 cups skinned and sliced peaches

1 cup raspberries, fresh or frozen

2-1/2 Tablespoons Instant ClearJel (or 1/3 c. flour)

1 cup sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 Tablespoons lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon almond extract

Ingredients for topping:

3/4 cup brown sugar

3/4 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup rolled oats

1/2 cup chopped pecans or walnuts

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg

1/2 cup butter, room temperature

Directions:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Grease a 9×9″ baking dish. Whisk the ClearJel (or flour) with the sugar and salt. Toss the dry mixture with the peaches, lemon juice, and almond extract, and spoon into the prepared pan. Sprinkle the berries evenly on top.

In a medium mixing bowl, combine the brown sugar, flour, oats, nuts, and spices. Mix in the soft butter just until incorporated. Don’t overmix. Sprinkle the topping evenly over the fruit mixture, shaking the pan gently to distribute it evenly.

Bake the crisp for 40-50 minutes, until the topping is golden brown and the filling is bubbly. Remove from the oven. Cool on a wire rack for 20-30 minutes before serving.

Anne of Green Gables? Anne of Avonlea? You know what I’m talking about, right?

Seven hours (seven hours!) of romantic red-headed fun, culminating in a glorious final five minutes, when Gilbert (after 7 whole hours, poor boy) finally wins Anne’s love. And then there’s a sweet little 2-second kiss, and then the credits roll. Lovely!

Right before Gilbert goes in for the kill, Anne spouts out a little gem of wisdom that has become a sort of credo for me: “It’s not what the world holds for you, it’s what you bring to it.”

So, can I get a little personal here? Okay. We just moved. We bought a wonderful little house in Orem, Utah. And we love it here. Moving by itself is pretty taxing, but when you add third-trimester pregnancy and a curious toddler into the equation… well, heh. Yeah, taxing.

I’ve been thinking about Anne lately. Surely… surely… being worn out isn’t all that’s in store for me as I transition to a new home and finish the end of this pregnancy. I don’t want to sit around and let circumstances happen. Part of the beauty of life is that we have the power to act, not be acted upon. Anne could back me up here.

This is why I put together a loaf of braided bread in the middle of a stressful week — lest you think I’m crazy. I may not have control over my little boy’s bloody nose, or the spiders in our new basement, or the Braxton-Hicks, or the piano movers forgetting to give back the apartment key and then going off to Disneyland (good one, guys).

But bread! Yes! I can bring a pretty loaf of delicious bread into my world. So life is sweet.

This bread actually comes together much faster than you’d think. So, no intimidation allowed. I used SAF Instant Yeast. It’s a different animal than active dry yeast, which is what most people use. So, be aware of that. Instant yeast is slightly more expensive, but you don’t need to proof it first, and it only needs to rise once before baking. I don’t have to tell you that that’s awesome.

Apricot Cheese Braid

Adapted from The Taste of Home Baking Book

Ingredients:

1 Tablespoon SAF instant yeast

1/2 cup lukewarm milk

1/4 cup butter, softened

2 Tablespoons sugar

1 egg

1/8 teaspoon salt

2 - 2-1/4 cups all-purpose flour

1/3 cup apricot preserves

3 ounces cream cheese, softened

2 Tablespoons sugar

1 teaspoon lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 cup turbinado sugar

Directions:

In a large mixing bowl, combine the yeast, milk, butter, sugar, egg, salt, and 1/2 cup of the flour. Beat until smooth. Stir in enough of the remaining flour to form a soft dough, and knead until it’s smooth and elastic, about 6-8 minutes. You may need to grease your hands for this.

Roll the dough out into a 15- by 9-inch rectangle. Place on a greased baking sheet. Spread the cream cheese filling lengthwise down the center third of the rectangle. Spread the apricot preserves evenly on top of the cream cheese.

On each long side, cut 1-inch width strips, about 1/2 inch from the filling. Starting at one end, fold alternating strips at an angle across the filling. Seal the ends. Cover and let rise in a slightly warm place until doubled in size (about 30-40 minutes).

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Brush the bread gently with milk, and sprinkle with turbinado sugar. Bake for 25-30 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from the pan to a wire rack to cool completely before slicing. Store in the refrigerator.

Sunday is my baking day. Not my only baking day, you understand, but my favorite one. By a long shot.

Check it out. I get home from church, kick off my shoes, and don the cute plaid apron. Wha-BAM! The flour starts flying. But, you know… in a peaceful, Sunday sort of way.

Sunday afternoons are just about the loveliest time for me. I can put my little boy down for a nap, turn on some pretty Sunday-ish music, throw something in the oven, sit and read for a while, and enjoy the sunlight streaming through the muslin curtains on my west-facing kitchen window.

Then, before you know it, there’s something warm and delicious - like this sweet carrot pineapple bread - that my husband and I can sit down and share together. And you know what? I think that’s the sweetest thing of all.

When do you like to bake? I wanna hear.

Carrot Pineapple Bread

adapted from The Taste of Home Baking Book

Ingredients:

3 cups all-purpose flour

2 cups sugar

1 teaspoon baking soda

1 teaspoon ground cinnamon

3/4 teaspoon salt

3 eggs

2 cups shredded carrots

1 cup vegetable oil

1 can (8 oz) crushed pineapple, drained

2 teaspoons vanilla extract

1 cup chopped pecans or walnuts (optional)

Directions:

Preheat the oven for 350 degrees F. In a large bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking soda, cinnamon and salt. In another bowl, beat the eggs; add carrots, oil, pineapple, and vanilla. Stir into dry ingredients just until moistened. The batter will be very thick. Fold in nuts, if desired.

Spoon into two greased 8-in. by 4-in. loaf pans. Bake for 50-70 minutes or until a toothpick inserted near the center comes out clean. Cool for 10 minutes on a wire rack. Remove loaves from pans and cool completely on wire racks.

(Note: This bread was great the day-of, but it wasn’t until after I wrapped it up and let it sit over night, that I fell in love with it.)