Capturing The Last Bites Of Summer

I had to go out of town recently and had a dilemma... what to do with all the fresh produce on the counter before I leave? There were tons of grapes, a whole lot of two different kinds of tomatoes, and 5 peaches. On our budget, this stuff is like gold. I had to make the best use of it that I could, and I only had a few days to do it. It wouldn't keep until I got back.

First up... the five peaches. A nice lady at church shared the last late fruit from her tree. They were lovely and fragrant. We could have just eaten them as is, but I wanted to do something a little more special with them. It's not every day that we get such beautiful ripe fruit and it will be a long time until peaches are in season again. Then I remembered seeing a recipe for peach ice cream that sounded kind of slightly spectacular...

Peach, Bourbon & Brown Sugar Ice Cream

adapted from Serious Eats

4-5 ripe peaches
2 cups heavy cream
3/4 cup light brown sugar
1 tsp molasses
1/4 cup brown rice syrup
1/2 tsp salt
2 Tbsp bourbon

Wash, dry, and cut the peaches into large chunks. Don't bother peeling them.

Blend the first five ingredients together in a blender or food processor until the peaches are completely pureed.

Transfer to a saucepan and bring to a simmer over medium heat, stirring often. Simmer for 5 minutes or until it starts to thicken. Take off heat and let cool to room temp.

Stir in the salt and the bourbon, then transfer the mixture into a bowl. Cover and refrigerate for 6-8 hours or overnight.

When it's fully chilled, process in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's directions. Transfer the soft ice cream to a freezer container and put in the freezer for at least 3 hours.

My Notes: If you have dark brown sugar, use it and omit the molasses. The bourbon is not a strong presence in the finished ice cream but I would be afraid to add more as it might interfere with the freezing. Still, I like that it's in there and just because it isn't a strong flavor doesn't mean it's not adding to the overall deliciousness. Definitely let this stuff sit in the freezer for a few days if you can... the brown sugar really comes forward at the finish if you do. Really nice ice cream. Sweet, subtle, perfume-y, earthy... yummy.  

All-in-all, a fitting finish to summer.

Coming up... my preserve-a-thon continues with concord grapes, two kinds of tomatoes, and much much more! How about you? Preserve anything lately?

August Wish List and the Letter "S"...

Sun... Not too much. Just enough warmth to remind me that it's summer, but not so much that it makes me long for it to be over. If not for me, then for all our gorgeous green tomatoes just waiting to turn vibrant vitamin-packed shades of red, orange, and burgundy.

Sea... I want to go to the ocean. La Mer. I want to sit and stare at it, and listen to it, and breathe its air. Maybe I'll take a kite. Maybe I won't. I want to come home at the end of the day with that pleasant tiredness that I get just from spending the day near it.

Stone Fruit... Fresh, ripe, deeply scented. Perfumed, even. Fruit with pits. In season. Eaten out of hand. Baked, broiled, grilled. I want to over-indulge in stone-fruits. Eat them with every meal. Before they're gone for the year.*

These recipes are the stuff some of my summer dreams are made of...

Blackberry-Peach Porridge

What happens when you take a few minutes to wash, slice, and freeze summer fruits at their peak (or close to it)? You get to put peaches in your winter porridge. And if you heat up your favorite berry preserve with a little bit of liquid* and stir it up... you get to drizzle it over the peach porridge and taste the warmth of the summer sun on a morning so cold, you could almost see your breath inside the house. So maybe I exaggerated a bit on the temperature, but it is the coldest morning we've had so far this season. You know it's really cold when the sun has been up for three hours... and the temperature is still dropping. Time for a nice big pot of tea... excuse me while I go put the kettle on.

*A tablespoon of liquid to a quarter cup of jam. Just enough to make it syrupy. Water will do, or try orange juice, lemon or lime juice. Feeling decadent? Use Cointreau, brandy or bourbon.

The Prodigal Pastry and a Peach-Blueberry Crostata

I learned (or uh, re-learned) a valuable lesson this past weekend. Have a back-up. That's it... have a back-up. Turns out that I had no back-up for my #1 favorite simple dessert of all time: the Peach Crostata. I made it, like, 47 times last year.* So many times you'd think it would be committed to memory by now. But no, my brain doesn't work that way. That's why I have this blog. The original link to the recipe was here on the blog, right where I put it last summer. When I clicked on said link last weekend though, I was given the option of purchasing the article containing the recipe or subscribing to the newspaper for full access to all their archives. What? Deep breath. It's o.k., I wrote it down... somewhere. No time to search, so I quickly threw together the Peaches & Herbs Shortcake instead.

The shortcake was a fine substitute but I was still mighty vexed over the apparent loss of the crostata recipe and the next few days were spent tearing the house upside-down looking for it. At least there was some comfort in the thought that, should I not find it, I could buy it. Harumpf. I seriously considered purchasing the article, even though the thought of it riled me up like a wet cat. That's how much I liked that recipe.

Well, the lost became found. Sort of. I finally located my notes yesterday, scribbled into one of the six or seven partially filled notebooks that seem to float from room to room here like indecisive specters. It's not a good system but I'm working on it, I really am. New habits (at least the good ones) take time. Backing-up is a very good habit. Favorite recipe? Save it to a file, be it paper or digital, or better yet, both. Don't ever be caught without your favorite pastry recipe at your fingertips. Save yourself that particular panic and back it up... today.

Peaches Aplenty

It's just not summer without peaches. Lots and lots of peaches. While it's great when you hit on something fabulous to make with them, something you could make over and over with no complaints, it's also fun to mix things up a bit and try something new. The repeat favorites around here are of course the recent Peaches & Herbs Shortcake and last summer's Peach Crostata. If I made nothing else but those two recipes with each and every fresh peach that came my way, I would be a happy happy girl. But when I look around and see so many other wonderful ways to prepare and feature this luscious summer fruit... well, I start to cave. I wonder if maybe I might be missing out on something great. And after all, I have the crostata and shortcake in my back pocket (in a manner of speaking), and can make them at any time knowing they'll be wonderful. Why not venture out a little. See if there is a new favorite waiting to be discovered.

Here is a list of peach-centric recipes for breakfast-time, snack-time, dessert-time, and even cocktail-time. They all sound just peachy to me...

• The easiest thing you can do and still call it "dessert" Peaches Simmered In Muscat at The Kitchn
• Picnic portable Peach Ginger Hand Pies also from The Kitchn
• Fresh-Peach Drop Cookies at Martha Stewart sound delightful (and easy).
• Peach and cinnamon are practically made for each other Cinnamon-Peach Cottage Cheese Pancakes at allrecipes.com
• Peach And Cornmeal Upside-Down Cake also from MSL (Aug 2008 issue) has a little lavender in the mix to give it that extra summer something.
• Muddle, shake and sip on a  Whiskey Peach Smash from The Kitchn (extra points if you have a veranda to sip it on).

Peach Pastries

Yesterday I made the last Peach Crostata. I made it as big as I could and crammed in as many leftover peaches as was possible. Would you believe there were still enough left to make one more normal sized crostata? Amazing. I was unable to dredge up enough enthusiasm to make yet another batch of pie dough, but I was also unwilling to throw out the rest of the peaches. Their time had come though (and almost gone). It was now or never, and they knew it too. Then I remembered the puff pastry in the freezer. Yep, a whole box, unopened and not even past its expiration date. That's almost as rare as a lottery win around here. A quick Google search brought up a bunch of recipe options, but since my peaches were already mixed with pie ingredients, I had little choice but to just wing it.

So here's what I did: I rolled out one sheet of the puff pastry to a 10 x 7" rectangle (approximately). Trimmed the edges straight with my pizza wheel, then sliced it in half, making two 5 x 7" rectangles*. Next, I scored a line around the inside of each, about 3/4" from the edges using the back edge of a dinner knife. I laid as many peach slices inside the scored lines as would fit comfortably. Then I squeezed a couple more in. The last four slices in the bowl were the uckiest ones, so I didn't feel too terribly bad not using them (instead, they will find new life as compost). I sprinkled a little cinnamon and brown sugar over the fruit, because it just felt right. After assembling, I popped the pastries into the freezer overnight, pan and all (that fruit was on a slippery slope and I didn't want to take any chances). This morning I took the pan out of the freezer to thaw for 20 minutes. Preheated the oven to 400°, then put the pan with the pastries in to bake for 20-25 minutes (rotating half way). Let it cool a little on a rack, sprinkled some powdered sugar on top, and breakfast was served.

Now, I know this is somewhat unorthodox for breakfast, and I would normally not make something like this for that meal. That being said, we both really liked the way it turned out. A lot. I could definitely see making small individual pastries this way and serving them to guests after a nice meal. Maybe with a little dollop of whipped cream and some chopped pistachios. It's a little fancier looking than the crostata, but just as easy. Easier even, if you buy frozen puff pastry. Mine was purchased at one of the large grocery chains and contains a few things I can't pronounce. There does exist a brand that uses real butter (shocking, isn't it?), and I'm sure I can find it at one of the many over-priced specialty markets we have around here. Of course, for a truly faked dessert when you're in a pinch, you use what you've got or can get quickly and easily. While I would love to serve only the very best healthful and organic foods to my friends, time and (mostly) budget sometimes take precedence. For the most part, our friends and family fall into two different foodie groups. There are those that do not get overly concerned about nutrition labels, but really love great food; and those who are very scrupulous nutritionally, but know that eating off track, every once and a while, is an unavoidable part of life. The Hubs and I kind of sit the fence between the two, which pretty much means we eat whatever we want but feel really really guilty about it.

I'm just kidding about that last part.

*Handy Tip: After cutting pastry into desired shapes, transfer it onto the prepared baking pan before putting the fruit on it. It's much easier that way. Why I can't seem to remember that step, is beyond me.

Peach Crostata

These crostatas (crostati?) are so stinkin' easy! I may never make a regular pie again. I really don't mind making pie crusts; they just never turn out the way they should, and I never know exactly what I did wrong. This "foolproof" crust is not only a snap to make, but geez, you just fold it over the fruit and you're done. No pressing it into a pan (no pan!), no crimping the edges, no blind-baking (or pre-shrinking as I like to call it), and no disappointments. There's no denying it, I am in love. And it's for real.

After the Plum Crostata went so well last Wednesday, I knew that it would be the perfect thing to serve at our bbq on Sunday. Unfortunately, there were no more Italian prune plums at the store. Word to the wise: when you see them, buy them. I think I've said this before. You won't get a second chance. We took home some lovely peaches and regular plums instead.

The only other snag* was from me trying to be more efficient (save time, cut corners) by attempting to make a triple-batch of the dough. This action sent my nemesis, the food processor, into what can only be described as a culinary coronary. "Spock, where the hell's the power you promised?"** There I was dumping the whole mess into my largest mixing bowl and madly working my vintage pastry cutter into a frenzy (and my shoulder into a flare up). You know, if not for the occasional physical pain, it really is so much simpler to just do things manually sometimes. But then I'm just an old-fashioned girl/techno-phobe at heart.

Peach Crostata from The Boston Globe
[[This link no longer works... CLICK HERE for the recipe]]

Notes: I divided the dough into three equal portions, wrapped them each in plastic wrap, and stuck them in the fridge. The recipe called for 6 large peaches per pie, and the flat I got at CostCo contained eleven. I figured it was probably enough for 2 pies. My lovely assistant and I washed, pitted and sliced all the peaches and tossed them with the other ingredients (doubled since I was making two). I suspected that I had way too many peach slices for two pies. It turned out that I had enough for all three pies with plenty to spare. I'll do the math later and try to figure out how many peaches are actually required per pie.*** They turned out wonderful. Served them on our "good" cutting boards and cut them into wedges with the pizza cutter. Rustic. Casual. And oh, so tasty.

Notes from the Next Day: I whipped out a double-batch of the dough today (manually) and made one crostata tonight when we got back from the movies. Used the left-over peaches from Sunday. I rolled the dough out to a 14" circle this time so I could try to fit more of the peaches onto it. Worked great. No problems at all. Love this dough.

Notes from Two Days After That: Had leftover crostata yesterday for breakfast so I didn't make the other one until today. I mean, really, peach pie twice in the same day? It's just too much. I've got to have some semblance of restraint, haven't I? Peach pie once a day though, that's perfectly reasonable. Even recommended. By me. Oh, and I made it with the rest of the left-over peaches from Sunday. Ah well, soon enough it will be winter and this will all be just a beautiful memory. Me (huddled by the fire for warmth): "Remember last summer when we had peach pie every single day?". Hubs (gnawing on a stale crust of bread): "Mmmm, yeah. (lets out a long wistful sigh) How could I ever forget?"

*I lied. There was another snag. I assembled the first crostata and it was perfect. Unfortunately, it was also still on the cutting board. My lovely assistant asked, "Didn't you want to do that on the baking sheet?". Uh, yeah. Luckily no one else saw. Did I mention that I did the same thing on Wednesday?

**Kirk to Spock in the movie Star Trek IV, to which Spock replied, "One damn minute, admiral". My food processor replied to me also, but I couldn't possibly repeat what it said. This is a family-friendly blog after all.

***I'm told the answer is: approximately 1.83 CostCo-sized peaches per pie. Important to note that peaches purchased or picked anywhere else may produce a different result.

Peach Brûlée

Peach Brûlée
Adapted from joythebaker

Ingredient amounts are per serving. For multiple servings, simply multiply ingredients by number of people. Or to put it more simply... one peach per person.