Tag Archives: egg-less

Apple Crisp

10 Nov

We’re staying with my sister to accompany her and her husband for the birth of my first nephew…  it’s a whole family gathering here – my sister’s mother-in law, my mom, my dad, my uncle are all here, just to name a few.

Sio, my nephew’s grandma is staying here too and she looooves apples.  Good thing we’re in apple season and in every farmer’s market we go to there’s apples on sale.

To be honest, I know little about apples.  I am only familiar with Granny Smiths and Golden Delicious, my favorites and Red Delicious, which I know I do not like very much.  But the rest of the names, I have heard of – Macintosh, Gala, HoneyCrisp, Fuji, etc. – but I am not familiar with their distinctive tastes.

We found these Gala apples on sale for $1 a bag at The Boys Farmer’s Market.   I found Gala’s to be not as tart as Granny Smiths but crisper than Golden Delicious.  I can really say I can add Galas to my list of apples I like.  And to please Sio and her apple cravings I decided to use these newly appreciated Galas to modify my Plum and Blueberry crisp recipe to apples. 

 

APPLE CRISP

5 Gala apples, peeled, cored and sliced
5 tbs cornstarch
Zest and juice of 1 yellow lemon
1 cup of brown sugar
Sprinkle of cinnamon
½ tsp of vanilla extract
Canola Oil Spray

 For the Crisp Topping

1 cup of spelt flour
1 ½ sticks of unsalted butter, cut into small cubes
1 cup of brown sugar
Sprinkle of cinnamon
2/3 cup of sliced almonds
½ cup of quick cooking oats

 

  1. Pre-heat oven to 375F.
  2. In a large glass baking dish sprayed with canola oil, dump the cut apples and mix in the cornstarch, lemon zest, lemon juice, sugar, cinnamon and vanilla extract.  Mix well to combine.  Set aside.
  3. In a separate bowl mix together the flour, sugar, cinnamon, almonds, oats with the pieces of cold butter.  Using your fingers, combine the butter with the rest of the ingredients until it becomes like the consistency of wet sand.
  4. Pour the topping over the apples evenly.  Bake in oven for about 30 minutes…  the apples will bubble and the topping will look cooked and somewhat golden.

 

I usually turn off the oven and leave it inside until we’re ready to eat… to me, it’s best served warm with a side glass of milk or vanilla ice cream.   

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Plum and Blueberry Crisp

10 Sep

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
 
  1. 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…
  2. Peel the plums, which should be easier after they’ve been blanched.  Slice them into ½” slices. 
  3. 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.
  4. Pre-heat oven to 350F.
  5. 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.
  6. 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.
  7. 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!!!

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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
  1. Pre-heat toaster oven to 350F
  2. 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.
  3. 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.
  4. 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.
  5. Prepare the egg replacer by mixing the egg replacer powder with 2 tbs of soy milk.  Set aside.
  6. 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.
  7. 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.
  8. 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.
  9. 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…

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Very Berry Sorbet

23 Jun

This week summer started officially, according to the calendar, because in Puerto Rico summer started since April, during Holy Week/Easter.  We have been feeling the heat for weeks…

To celebrate the “official” start of summer, our friends at Serious Eats encouraged us to share with them our favorite frozen treats in a feature Ice Cream Social.  I am a social person… and I have been meaning to make a berry sorbet for the longest time, so what better excuse than to share it with all my Serious Eats friends.

The cool thing… it only has 4 ingredients if you count the water and you only need a food processor and a freezer to make this sorbet.  I do not have an ice cream maker because my kitchen is so small I do not have the space for another gadget, so just like Alton Brown we need to multitask.  And nothing beats this in the natural and refreshing department – it only has berries and agave nectar…  Take that Häagen Dazs!!!!

 

VERY BERRY SORBET

8 frozen strawberries
24 frozen blackberries
¼ cup of water
1/3 cup of agave nectar
 

 

  1. Dissolve the agave nectar into the water.
  2. Place the frozen berries in a food processor.  I cut the strawberries in quarters to make them more even in size with the blackberries.

  1. Pulse your food processor a few times to start mashing the berries.  After a few pulses, let it process normally and pour the water and agave nectar mixture through the chute on the top.  You’ll see how the berries will turn into a slushy.
  3. If you’re not fond of sorbet with seeds, pass the mixture thru a sieve to remove as much of the seeds as possible.  If you don’t mind them, skip this step.
  4. Place in an airtight container and freeze for about 2-3 hours before serving. 

 

This recipe made about 2 cups of sorbet and it is super easy and super refreshing…  I use frozen berries I buy fresh and freeze them myself.  It’s super convenient to make smoothies at home and certainly to make this frozen treat.

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