Showing posts with label dessert. Show all posts
Showing posts with label dessert. Show all posts

Wednesday, August 28, 2013

Buttermilk Blackberry Pie


 I don't typically make a lot of desserts just for us because, well, we will eat them all and gain a thousand pounds. Birthdays are a perfect excuse to whip up something special however! My mom is a huge pie person and loves buttermilk pies and blackberries so I decided to combine the two make this yummy confection for her Birthday last week! I was a little intimidated since I'd never actually made a pie before but it came out great and the pie pieces even held together in perfect little wedges when we cut them.


You can find the original recipe here, I just subbed blackberries for raspberries. I'll write out the recipe on this blog as well for anyone who wants to try it.

For the Crust


  • 1 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 tablespoon sugar
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • 4 ounces (1 stick) unsalted butter
  • 1/4 cup water, plus 2 tablespoons

For the Filling

  • 1/4 cup blackberries
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • Salt
  • 3/4 cup white granulated sugar
  • 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
  • 3 large eggs
  • 3/4 cup buttermilk

In a large bowl combine flour, sugar and salt. Use a cheese grater to grate butter in to flour mixture (this is genius by the way! Such and easy way to make crust!), this works best if the butter is very cold. Using your hands, mix butter and flour mixture together until the butter resembles small peas in size. Add 1/4 cup water and mix with your hands until dough just holds together. Add the extra 2 tablespoons of water gradually if you need it to keep the dough together. Shape dough in to a disc and wrap in plastic, refrigerate for one hour. 

Remove dough from refrigerator and roll out on a well floured work space until you get a roughly 14 inch round crust. Roll up on your rolling pin and unroll on to you pie tin to avoid breaking the crust. Trim the edges and crimp with your fingers. Chill crust in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Score the bottom of the crust with a fork and line the pie tin with foil. Add dried beans or rice to weigh down the center of the crust. Bake the crust at 400 degrees for  15 minutes. Remove the foil and beans and bake uncovered for an additional 5 minutes. Remove from oven and allow to come to room temperature. 

Meanwhile, you can start making the filling. Heat the blackberries in a small sauce pan with sugar for about 10 or 15 minutes, mushing with a spoon as you go, until the mixture is smooth. Set aside to cool. Combine eggs, salt, flour and buttermilk, and whisk until smooth. Pour the buttermilk mixture in to the cooled pie crust. Add blackberry mixture to pie filling in dollops and use a bamboo skewer (or something similar) to swirl the blackberries, making a pretty design. Be careful to keep the pie level as you put it in the oven to avoid messing up your pretty design. I also find it helpful to put foil around the edges of my crust to keep it from burning. Bake at 325 degrees for 30 to forty minutes, allow to come to room temperature and garnish with fresh blackberries before serving. 

I thought the crust would be hard to make but it was actually pretty easy if a little time consuming. That trick of grating the butter worked wonderfully and I would definitely use it again. 

Tuesday, July 23, 2013

Watermelon Lime Popsicles



For Eric's Birthday I got him a Zoku quick pop maker. For those of you that don't know, my husband is a popsicle fanatic, he can go through the things like crazy! I had gotten him some traditional popsicle molds in the past but none of them really worked out well for us and we had problems with the sticks coming out of the pops and everything sticking to the mold. Since we go through pops so fast in our house I thought a quick freeze pop maker was a great idea and I had heard good things about Zoku so I decided to give this one a try. We took some tips from my friend Emily at One Trailing Spouse  who has the same pop maker and let them freeze for about half an hour instead of the advertised 7 minutes just to make sure they froze well. They came out fantastic! We really feel that they are gourmet quality (similar to King of Pops) and were so easy to make. Here is the recipe we used for our first pop, we are looking forward to lots more experimentation in the near future.

Ingredients
3 to 4 cups chopped seedless watermelon
juice and zest of one lime
6 tbs sugar

Blend all ingredients with an emersion blender until smooth. Use a liquid measuring cup to pour mixture in to your pop mold (be careful not to overfill, we kept doing this and it go messy). Freeze until solid and enjoy!

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Healthy(ish) Peach Crumble


We have had to take a break from the farmers market for a few weeks due to having too many weekend plans but we were finally able to return this weekend. Lo and behold, peach season had arrived! We were able to score a huge bag of scratch and dent peaches for cheap and needed to find a way to use them up before they went bad. We make apple crisp all the time in the fall and love it for it's simplicity and deliciousness. Here is a slightly healthier version using peaches, whole grain flour and reduced sugar. It tastes nice and light for Summer!

Ingredients
6 Tbs brown sugar
1/2 cup almond butter
3 Tbs butter
2 Tbs whole grain flour
3 Tbs quick cook oats
1/4 Tsp vanilla
Dash of salt
Dash of cinnamon
10 ripe peaches

Combine all ingredients in except peaches in a medium bowl, cutting in butter and almond butter to dry ingredients until crumbly. Set aside. Slice peaces and arrange in an 8"x8" baking dish (I didn't bother to peel them but if you don't like peels feel free to get rid of them). Sprinkle crumble topping on peaches and bake at 400 degrees for 30 minutes. It doesn't get any easier than that! I couldn't help but think this would be great as an ice cream topping too, mmm....

Tuesday, April 16, 2013

Easy Apple Crisp


This is another nostalgic post relating to the time when Echo was born. Really this apple crisp should be added to your new mom survival kit.

Echo was born in late September and the weather was spectacular. The days were warm and the nights were just starting to get nice and cool. We had planned for a Fall birthday for our fist child, not only is it my favorit season but no one else in our families has a Fall birthday so she will have it all to herself.

After we brought Echo home from the hospital our families were nice enough to bring us all kinds of food so we wouldn't have to cook on top of taking care of a new baby. My mom started bringing us seasonal and delicious apple crisp, what could be more comforting than apples, cinnamon, suger and oats? Soon enough we got the recipe from her and have been making it ever since. Every time we whip up this recipe it makes me think of sitting on the back deck with our newborn baby. This is one recipe that will definitely always hold a special place in our hearts.

Ingredients
10 cups apples, peeled and sliced
1 cup white sugar
1 tbs all purpose flour
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 cup water

topping
1 cup quick cook oats
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup brown sugar
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp baking soda
1/2 cup melted butter

Mix white sugar, 1 tbs flour, and cinnamon in a small bowl. Place apple slices in a 9 by 12 baking dish and sprinkle with sugar mixture. Pour water on top of apples and sugar. In a separate bowl mix together  remaining ingredients and crumble on top of apple dish. Bake at 350 degrees for 45 minutes.