Crisps-Crumbles-Bread Puddings

Is there such a thing as a farmer’s market shopaholic? I am infamous for wandering through farmers markets and buying fruits and vegetables without having a clue or plan what to make with them. Blackberries were at the farmer’s market a while ago and I just couldn’t pass them up.

I usually ask the couple who runs the produce stand if I can taste the fruit before buying  (cherries, blueberries, strawberries, etc.). In my rush to buy them, I forgot to taste them. They looked absolutely beautiful, but looks were deceiving. My friend, Jill, grabbed one and popped it straight into her mouth. Not a moment later she almost spit it out, saying it was way too tart.

I realized that my mistake of not tasting them, and impulse buying, added to the confusion of what to make with these tart beauties. I washed them and stuck them in the freezer, thinking that I would eventually come up with a plan.

A little while later, I had a few peaches on hand. There weren’t enough to make a full cobbler with, so out came the blackberries from the freezer and wonderfully delicious, tart and sweet crisps were created. As I pulled the crisps out of the oven, my mouth watered with the still slightly tart smell of the blackberries mingling with the sweet peaches. I barely let them cool before having a huge, hot spoonful.

Honey-Nut Blackberry Peach Crisp
a Love & Confection original recipe

Honey-Nut Blackberry Peach Crisp Ingredients:
 – 1/4 cup of your favorite Honey Nut Cereal (I used Cheerios)
 – 1 package Instant Oatmeal
 – 2 tablespoons Brown Sugar
 – 3 tablespoons Granulated Sugar, separated
 – 1/4 cup Pancake or Baking Mix (I used Bisquick)
 – 3 Peaches
 – 2 cups Blackberries
 – 1 tablespoon Corn Starch
 – 1 tablespoon Honey
 – 4 tablespoons Unsalted Butter, cold and cubed
 – Vanilla Ice Cream (optional)

Honey-Nut Blackberry Peach Crisp Directions:
 – Heat oven to 350 degrees F.
 – In a food processor, combine the Honey Nut Cereal, Oatmeal, Brown Sugar, 2 tablespoons of the Granulated Sugar and the Pancake/Baking Mix. Pulse until combined, and the cereal is in smaller pieces, and reserve.
 – Cut the Peaches in small wedges or cubes.
 – Combine the Peaches, Blackberries, Corn Starch, Honey and remaining 1 tablespoon Granulated Sugar in a bowl
 – Portion the fruit into individual ramekins or a small/medium baking dish prepared with non-stick cooking spray.
 – Divide the cereal mixture onto the individual ramekins, or if using one baking dish, spread evenly on top. Place the cubed butter evenly over the cereal mixture.
 – Bake on a sheet tray covered in foil, in case the fruit mixture bubbles over. Bake for 35-45 minutes, or until hot and bubbly.
 – Let it cool a few minutes before eating. It will be hotter than it looks. Best served warm with a big scoop of Vanilla Ice Cream!

Until next time,
LOVE & CONFECTIONS!

I have not posted in a while, because I have been recovering from my second surgery. The problem with getting surgery on your dominant hand is that it takes a little longer to heal, hence the lack of posts from a lack of baking.

Next week I start a new job at a small French bakery & cafe. I am hoping I will be able to post more with my new and different hours, but we’ll see. The production amount will be less than my last baking job at the university cafeteria (1,500-3,000 people per day, which caused me to have the two surgeries in the first place). I think the experience I am going to gain with the new job will be invaluable. It is a new adventure and I am ready.

Sometimes you only want a few cupcakes and the recipe or box mix yields more than you need. This is a great way to use up those extra, unfrosted cupcakes.

Chocolate Cupcake Bread Pudding
Love & Confections original recipe

Chocolate Cupcake Bread Pudding Ingredients:
– 8 Chocolate Cupcakes, unfrosted and quartered
– 2 large Eggs
– 1/4 cup granulated Sugar
– 1 cup Milk
– 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
– 2 ounces shaved Chocolate or 2 ounces Mini Chocolate Chips

Chocolate Cupcake Bread Pudding Directions:
1. Preheat oven to 350F and spray oven-safe baking dish with cooking spray
2. Quarter Chocolate Cupcakes and place baking dish
3. In the bowl of your stand mixer, or a bowl with electric beaters, combine the Eggs and granulated Sugar. Whip until the eggs thicken and have lightened in color – a lemon-y yellow.
4. Add Milk and Vanilla Extract to Egg mixture and combine carefully.
5. Sprinkle Chocolate pieces over the quartered cupcakes.
6. Pour wet mixture over the cut cupcakes, pressing down to ensure they are all covered with the liquid.
7. Let the cupcakes and liquid sit for 15 minutes, so the cupcakes absorb the mixture.
8. Open the oven, pull out the center rack and place the baking dish inside a larger oven-safe baking dish with sides. Fill the larger baking dish with enough water to go half-way up the sides of the smaller bread pudding dish (you are creating a bain-marie or water bath)
9. Carefully slide the oven rack back in the oven, and bake the bread pudding for 45-60 minutes (depending on your oven) or until you press slightly on the mixture and no liquid bubbles up.
10. When the cupcake bread pudding is done, CAREFULLY remove the larger baking dish and set it on the stove or counter and let it cool BEFORE removing the bread pudding baking dish.

* I used a 5 x 7 baking dish for the bread pudding.
* You can serve this warm or room temperature. To re-warm, place in a warm oven for 15 minutes. I recommend serving this with vanilla bean ice cream and whipped cream. Serves 4. This recipe can easily be doubled to serve more.

Until next time,
LOVE & CONFECTIONS!

For my second FHC I am baking Peach Cobbler. I have never made peach cobbler, nor have I ever eaten peach cobbler either. I love peaches, but normally eat them as is. Honestly, warm peaches have never been appealing, until now. My Food Holiday Challenge is to not only to bake items I like, but also to take a chance and make something I either do not like, or have never made before.

Unfortunately, peaches aren’t available here – Florida – because they aren’t “in season”. I had to make do and use canned peaches – I opted not to buy frozen peaches because they were a little outside my budget. For all the cobbler purists out there, the recipe I chose was the easiest for me to make at this point – or so I thought. Next year, I will probably make one with a dough to compare and see which I personally like better.

A little cobbler history:
– A cobbler is a type of deep-dish fruit dessert with a thick biscuit or pie dough crust that is prepared and then served warm to guests. It is very similar to a pie, except that the crust is thicker and it is traditionally placed only on top. However, over the years, ingredients and preparation methods have been created that bake the cobbler crust on the top for some recipes and on the bottom for others – like mine today.
– In the US, a cobbler is typically made with fruit or berries, but in the UK, it is typically a meat dish.
– Peach, apple, blueberry and cherry cobblers are among the most popular US varieties.
– The American Cobbler, which is different from a Crisp or Crumble – future blog posts – has nicknames like the Betty, Buckle, Sonker, Grunt, and Slump. New Englanders make Slumps and Grunts in a stove-top iron skillet, topping the fruit with dumplings. Buckles are made with yellow batter that is mixed with the filling. The Brown Betty is made with layers of fruit and bread or graham cracker crumbs, almost like a fruity bread pudding. Sonkers are deep-dish cobblers from North Carolina – my personal favorite nickname, not only because it sounds hilarious, but because my parents now call NC home, and it holds a special place in my heart.

Grandma’s Peach Cobbler
adapted from texascooking.com

Ingredients:
– 1 stick Unsalted Butter
– 1 cup Flour
– 1+1/2 teaspoon Baking Powder
– 1/2 teaspoon Salt
– 1 cup Sugar
– 1 cup Milk
– 1-15 ounce can Sliced Peaches, with juice

Directions:
– Preheat oven to 350 degrees Farenheit
– Slice butter into pats and place in 9×13 baking dish and put the dish in the preheating oven. The recipe above is a single batch. I doubled the recipe and used both an 11×13 dish and 8×8 dish. It doesn’t necessarily have to be the same size, just make recipe accordingly.
– While the butter is melting, mix up the batter by combining the Flour, Baking Powder, Salt, Sugar and Milk.
– When the butter is completely melted, remove the pan and pour the batter into the melted butter.
– Carefully spoon the peaches and juice evenly over the batter. Since I used canned peaches, I did not use all the juice, because the batter would be too watery. The extra juice will be saved for another day.
– return the dish to the oven and bake for X minutes. The original recipe says to bake for 30, but that was not even close to what it needed in my oven, which usually runs hot, so I left it in longer – an extra 40 minutes.
– As the cobbler cooks, the batter will rise up around the peaches.

The extra bake time totalled an hour and ten minutes! Now you know why this recipe might not have been the best choice today – thank goodness I didn’t have any other pressing matters or time constraints.

I still might tweak it a bit. Ease of preparation – wonderful, bake time – doable, end product – DELICIOUS! It is especially good with homemade vanilla ice cream – but that will be another Blog day. I am now a fan of peach cobbler.

Until next time,
Love & Confections!