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Plum and Blueberry Crisp

I am not the most proficient baker, particularly when having to make something for 20+ people… so when Angie at the yoga center asked me to help her with a dessert for the yoga center, I usually think of something fruity and simple that will not require lots of kneading or beating. Because with as many kitchen implements there are at the center, there is not an electric mixer.

I remembered a few episodes of Good Eats and Barefoot Contessa where they made fruit cobblers or crisps. I always enjoyed the cherry cobblers when I used to eat at Bonanza. But I guess something fresher than cherry pie filling would be more suitable for the buffet dinner at the Yoga Center.

We used gluten-free flour mix and non-dairy shortening to accommodate for the many allergies and tastes at the center… although I have seen MANY eat wheat and cheese galore when traveling and they present no “allergies issues”… go figure, huh?

PLUM BLUEBERRY CRISP

4 lbs of fresh plums

12oz of blueberries – I used frozen

2/3 cup of organic granulated sugar

5 tbs of cornstarch

1 tbs of lemon zest

Juice of 1 lemon

For the Topping

1 1/3 cups of gluten-free flour

1/3 cup of brown sugar

1/3 cup of organic granulated sugar

¼ tsp cinnamon

2 sticks of non-dairy “butter”, cut into small pieces – I used Earth Balance and I recommend maybe freezing it before using

1 cup of walnuts, toasted

Bring a large pot of water to a boil. Wash the plums well and cut an X at the bottom of each fruit using a paring knife. Place the plums in the hot water for about 1 minute until you see the skins start of peel off. Transfer the plums to a large bowl with ice water using a large colander. This will stop the cooking immediately…
Peel the plums, which should be easier after they’ve been blanched. Slice them into ½” slices.
Place the sliced plums in a large baking dish. Add the blueberries, the lemon zest, lemon juice, 2/3 cup of sugar and cornstarch. Mix well together. Set aside.
Pre-heat oven to 350F.
In a separate bowl we’ll mix the crisp topping – the gluten-free flour, brown sugar, granulated sugar, cinnamon, walnuts and non-dairy butter. Using your hands (or maybe even better an electric hand mixer) mix well all the ingredients to achieve a cornmeal texture. If the “butter” is not super well chilled you’ll make a huge mess. It’s still taste good, but be ready for a messy mess in your hands.
Drop pieces of the crisp topping over the fruits. The topping does not need to evenly cover the fruits, but try to have globs of topping as evenly spaced as possible over the fruits.
Bake in oven for 20-25 minutes until the topping gets as golden brown as possible. I did this in an oven that’s not mine and I had to increase the temp a bit to 385F for about 10 minutes to get a nicer golden color.

Allow the crisp to cool down for about 1 hour before you serve it. It’s delicious warm or even room temperature. A nice scoop of vanilla ice cream wouldn’t be bad either.

The dessert was a complete hit… that’s why we’re posting here for all to have access to it. Enjoy!!!

Tags: blueberry, egg-less, eggless, lemon juice, lemon zest, plum

Comments 1 Comment
Categories desserts

Membrillo Update

7 Sep

For all of you that wanted to know more where you could find Membrillo Paste, here is an update…

I saw Membrillo Paste at the Cheese Section of Whole Foods. You could find it near the manchego cheeses. This picture was taken recently at the Whole Foods in Boca Raton FL.

There were several varieties to choose from. Enjoy!!

Tags: membrillo, quince paste

Comments 2 Comments
Categories basics, desserts, Spanish Delicacies

Cherry Almond Clafouti

20 Jul

Cherries are not a tropical fruit… but I remember when I was little my dad used to buy us cherries whenever we traveled to NYC. It was such a treat to sit and eat those deliciously sweet cherries…

Now, thanks to Costco, I have a huge bundle of sweet cherries in my fridge. I sit and eat a small bowl watching TV but I wanted to do something special with them too. The other day, reading Serious Eats we discussed how to best freeze cherries – if one should pit them before or after freezing them. So after that discussion, I knew I decided to eat them raw or make them into something while fresh…

Then, last week, also in Serious Eats, we were asked to provide our French inspired recipes. And you know me and my fascination of anything French… and with the abundance of fresh cherries in my fridge, I decided to make Cherry Almond Clafouti. A clafouti is a French dessert where you take a pancake-like batter and pour it over fresh fruits and bake in the oven.

I’ll be honest… I’ve never eaten a cherry or any other clafouti in my life, partly because clafouti recipes out there all include eggs. What I know about clafouti I have learned by watching TV and reading cooking recipes. Alton Brown made a recipe the other day using a dutch oven and coals; Ina Garten has a few other recipes too. So I decided to take what I liked about some of these, add a few little twists of my own… and this is what I ended up with.

This recipe makes a medium cherry clafouti or two small ones – enough for 2 people. Romatic, no?

CHERRY ALMOND CLAFOUTI

About 10 fresh cherries, pitted

¼ cup sliced almonds, toasted – but you could also use peeled whole almonds

1½ tbs butter

½ cup soy milk, plus 2 tbs

1/3 cup spelt flour, sifted

1/8 cup brown sugar

1 ½ tsp egg replacer

1 tsp vanilla powder

A pinch of salt

Pre-heat toaster oven to 350F
Pit the cherries and set them aside. I pitted them by smashing them lightly with the side of a knife. Be careful the juice of the cherries doesn’t fall on your clothes. They “spit” a bit when you smash them.
Toast your almonds by placing them in a small tray and baking them for about 10 minutes. As soon as they start to smell like almonds, take them off the oven. Set them aside to cool off a bit.
Butter the inside of your baking dish. I used a large ramekin for this… but you could also use 2 smaller ramekins to serve as individual desserts.
Prepare the egg replacer by mixing the egg replacer powder with 2 tbs of soy milk. Set aside.
Place the milk in a medium bowl, add the sugar and whisk well until the sugar has dissolved in the milk. Add the egg replacer mix. Whisk again to incorporate. Place the flour onto a fine sieve and sift over the milk mixture. Whisk well. Add the salt and vanilla powder and whisk the whole mixture for a few minutes until well combined and air is incorporated into it.
Place the cherries in the baking dish. They should cover the whole bottom of the dish. Add a few almonds to the cherries. Pour almost the whole batter in top of the cherries, the batter should only cover them slightly.
Bake in oven for about 30-35 minutes. At the 15 minute mark, take them out slightly, place a few extra almonds on top and add a few small pieces on butter on top to make it golden brown.
The clafoutis should be puffy and golden delicious. Leave to cool about 30 minutes before serving.

This recipe is delicious… but I would like to work on it a little bit to perfect it. I will definitely let you know of the results of those tastings soon. I still have lots of cherries in that fridge…

Tags: cherry, Egg-free, egg-less

Comments 3 Comments
Categories desserts

Spelt Churros

12 Jul

My friend Angie’s mom, Doña Tina, is from Asturias. They were just visiting Asturias this past Easter. Angie came back with plenty ideas for us to make together. Among them, a CHURRERA… or a little machine contraption to make churros. We just had to try it for our Spanish-inspired dinner menu recently.

Mariana and Natalia were super excited to make churros… they were asking for them the whole night. Churros are sweet, crunchy and delicious. What’s not to like??

The recipe is super simple… just 3 ingredients – flour, water and butter. That’s it; Nothing to it. All you need is a little bit of muscle to work the Churrera. Or a second pair of hands is also very useful. If you do not have a churrera, don’t worry – a simple pastry bag with a star tip will also do the job.

We used spelt flour for the job… and it worked out extremely well.

SPELT CHURROS

1 cup spelt flour

1 cup water

2 tbs butter

a pinch of kosher salt

Canola oil for frying

Organic sugar for sprinkling on top

In a medium saucepan bring the water and butter to a boil. Dump the flour into the water in one swoop and start mixing it all together very briskly using a wooden spoon.
After mixing the dough around the pan for a little while, about 1-2 minutes, take the dough out of the pan to cool off.
After the dough has cooled, insert it into a churrera or pastry bag with a star tip.
In a large skillet, place about ½ inch of oil for frying the churros… traditionally olive oil is used, but I do not like to use olive oil for frying. Check the oil is at the right frying temperature by inserting a wooden spoon into the oil.
Press the churros dough through the currera and into the hot oil. Try to use a circular motion going from the center of the pan and spiral outward. When you run out of space in the pan, cut the dough using kitchen shears. That’s the traditional way the Spanish do churros. If this is too complex, just draw some lines into the frying pan and cut the dough again using kitchen shears.
Fry churros for about 10-15 minutes, until the dough is golden brown on all sides. Spelt flour is a little bit darker than traditional white flour, so it’ll take a few minutes of frying before you start seeing the change in color and doneness.
Take the finished churros out of the oil and place in a paper towel to drain. Sprinkle with organic sugar on top.

These churros are spectacular and even more so with a cup of Hot Carob on the side.

Tags: Egg-free, eggless, organic sugar, spelt

Comments 2 Comments
Categories breakfast, desserts, Spanish Delicacies

Manchego Cheese with Membrillo/Quince Paste

11 Jul

I truly do not know if this is typical Spanish combination, but it definitely reminds me of my last trip to Spain…

Walter and I visited Bilbao during our last trip to Spain, and even though the Guggenheim Museum was on top of our list of places to see and visit, walking thru the city and eating well ranked a really closed second.

Guggenheim Bilbao Museum

We decided Bilbao was not as big and we would walk it out and during our walk we found the Plaza or the city market and we had to go in. There were the most awesome variety of Spanish produce and some gorgeous stained window treatments.

As a snack we wanted something we could carry around, would not spoil easily and that it was typical Spanish… Walter decided out of all the cheeses available he wanted manchego. Why?? I still do not know because you can get manchego super easily here in Puerto Rico, but he wanted manchego, so we bought manchego. So I decided to accompany that with something a bit more local and that is not readily available where we live – Membrillo paste.

Photo Courtesy of nami-nami.blogspot.com

Membrillo is known as quince in English… a sweet fruit that looks like a cross between a pear and a guava. Membrillo is not commonly eaten in Puerto Rico, so for the purposes of our Spanish-inspired dinner we had to make do with guava paste. Very delicious too, but not quite the same. I guess this would be the Spanish equivalent to the Cuban – guava paste and cream cheese I grew up eating.