Summertime Treat - Nectarine, Plum, Apricot & Blueberry Cobbler

Woah - that's a lot of different kinds of fruit, right?  The truth is, I think you can put any kind of fruit or berry into this and it will work.  So if you only have nectarines and blueberries, that's fine.  In fact, that's what was in the original recipe.

This cobbler qualifies as a "true cobbler," in that the top resembles cobblestones.  They're crunchy biscuit-like clumps.

Oh, and I will post a recipe for real food soon, I promise.  I realize that we're getting a little treat heavy over here.  But when there's so much beautiful summer fruit available...

Nectarine and Blueberry Cobbler - Food Network Kitchens

Fruit:
6 ripe nectarines, about 1 pound (I did 3 huge nectarines, 2 teeny apricots, and 2 smallish plums)
2 cups fresh blueberries
1 cup sugar
1 tablespoon instant tapioca
2 tablespoons unsalted butter, diced into small pieces, plus more for the pan

Cobbler Top:
1 1/2 cups all­-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon fine salt
6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, diced into small pieces 1 large egg
1/2 cup heavy cream
zest of 1 lemon, perhaps?
Serving suggestions: Vanilla ice cream or whipped cream

Directions
Position a rack in the middle of the oven and preheat to 375 degrees F.

For the fruit: Halve the nectarines along their natural seam, but leave skins on. Cut each half into 3 wedges. Toss nectarines with blueberries, sugar, and tapioca and put into a buttered 9­inch round gratin or casserole dish. Dot the top of the fruit with the pieces of butter.

For the cobbler top: Whisk the flour, sugar, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Rub in 2 tablespoons of the butter with your fingertips until no visible pieces remain. Rub in the remaining 4 tablespoons butter just until it is in even, pea­size pieces. Whisk together the egg and cream and stir into the dry ingredients to make a shaggy, loose dough.  (I think I will also put the zest of 1 lemon into the egg and cream mixture next time to give the topping more flavor).

Spoon large spoonfuls of dough on top of the fruit in clumps (it should look like rough, old­fashioned cobblestones, hence the name cobbler). Bake until golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center of the topping comes out clean, about 1 hour. Cool cobbler on a rack, about 20 minutes.

Serve warm or room temperature, with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream, if desired. 

Summertime Treat - Strawberry Cream Cake

I always crave this particular dessert whenever I see loads of strawberries at the store.  I don't always make it, but I almost always buy the berries and think about baking this cake.

Because I'm so enamored by this treat, I've read many recipes for it.  In the end, I'm not convinced that more steps yields better results.  I know that I'm always looking for the shortcut, but this time I feel somewhat validated.  So while some recipes will tell you to mix cream cheese with whipped cream to stiffen up the frosting and filling, I think that's a mistake.  Strawberries are already a little sour - why introduce another sour component?  The same goes for marscapone cheese, which is just a fancy Italian cream cheese.  Don't boil the strawberries with sugar to make a syrup or puree them, either.  More steps = more pain.

Bake your favorite yellow cake.  While it's in the oven, you can slice the berries and put them into a non-metal bowl. Squeeze half of a lemon over those berries and pop in a couple of tablespoons of sugar.  Cover with plastic wrap and stick in the refrigerator.  You can do this a few hours before Cake Time.

While the berries are hanging out, you can take the cakes out of the oven and let them cool.  After that, leave everything alone until it's just before Cake Time.

When Cake Time rolls around, whip up that cream.  Pour the whipping cream and vanilla into a large mixing bowl and mix on low with a hand mixer or a stand mixer.  When the cream has gotten somewhat frothy, increase the speed and mix until the cream forms fluffy peaks.  Now you can put the cake together any way you'd like.  If you're making the cake for a crowd, you may build the cake by putting a layer down on the serving plate first.  Pour half of the syrup from the berries onto the first layer, then put down half of the berries on that layer.  Then put half of the cream on that layer and top with the second cake layer.  Pour the rest of the syrup on top of the cake, add the rest of the berries, then add the rest of the whipped cream.  If you'd like to see the strawberries on top, then put the whipped cream on after the syrup, before the berries.

If it's just for my immediate family, I'll freeze one layer of cake right away.  The other layer gets all the syrup from the berries first, then I load up the berries, then dollop the whipped cream right on top.  Easy.  Pretty.  Most importantly, Tasty.

Components:

This list gives measurements for a traditional 2-layer cake.  If you're only making 1 layer for a smaller group, then cut the non-cake ingredients in half.  Bake the entire cake and freeze one layer for a later date.

Basic American Yellow Cake, Los Angeles Times 

1 pound of fresh strawberries

Juice from 1/2 very large lemon or 1 small lemon

2 Tablespoons granulated sugar

Half pint of heavy whipping cream

A dash of pure vanilla extract