Nothing says autumn like the crunch of a fresh apple, flavorful juices flooding your mouth, triggering thoughts of autumn and hardwoods blazing with color. While I hate to let go of summer stone fruits, by September I’m ready for apple season to officially begin. Apple Crisp or a blended fruit crisp are a pleasurable way to celebrate. I found and adapted the following recipe years ago; the consensus of at least 100 people is that it’s the best Apple Crisp, bar none, that they’ve ever had. Obviously, I concur.
Actually, it’s difficult to have too many tomatoes. Zucchini, yes; tomatoes, not so much. However, too many overripe tomatoes at a time is an invitation to make gazpacho, the perfect soup for hot, humid afternoons and evening.
This recipe comes from, A Baker’s Passport, written by Susie Norris. Susie says, “Before the ‘British Bake-Off’ television show, a competition smoldered in Bakewell, Derbyshire in the United Kingdom. Much like Sacher Torte in Vienna, rivalries about the origins of the Bakewell Tart (also known as Bakewell Pudding or Bakewell Pudding Tart, depending on which shop in town you visit) are part of its allure.
This luxurious cake from Susie Norris’s most recent book, A Baker’s Passport, is all about the Americas — in this case Mexico — as both chocolate and vanilla are native to tropical Mexico, Central and South America. The cake is filled with vanilla flavor and then soaked with the caramel notes of sweet milk (Dulce de Leche) along with a bit of chocolate. If you are having a dinner party or event focused on Mexican food, the Vanilla Butter Cake with Chocolate Dulce de Leche would be culturally appropriate as well as a very popular dessert!
While pasta won’t cure all the world’s woes, it’s reliable comfort food on a rainy, bluesie, day or when you’ve been so busy all you can think of is something easy to make. This recipe’s not all about carbs thanks to the zoodles (zucchini noodles for the uninitiated). But what about the bacon, you might ask? It’s turkey bacon — lean but full of flavor. If you don’t do bacon, no problem. Feel free to use real bacon if you prefer. This dish more than holds its own thanks to the saffron cream sauce!
This delicate, delicious, absolutely-must-make cake recipe comes from Maria Reiz Springer. Now living in Maryland, Maria is from Austria and has an infinite number of amazing European dessert recipes, and usually a wonderful story that goes with the recipe. Maria has a home cooking school and is truly a master baker. The plum cake can be made with other stone fruits as well, but if you are lucky enough to have French plums, they are both the traditional plum used as well as divine in this cake.
Although the first figs may come in sometime in June, late July heralds the second round of the US fig season. In Europe, most especially Italy, everyone who can, has a fig tree. Italian immigrants who came to the US in the late 19th and early 20th century, planted them in barrels in apartment courtyards and in cottage gardens, holding onto the memory of warm figs harvested from trees in sun-baked gardens and hillsides.
Homemade frozen yogurt has become one of my passions this summer. I’ve especially enjoyed using freestone peaches and strawberries. You can use berries, nectarines, mangoes, and even poached apples or pears with most of the juices drained. Simply follow the basic recipe and adjust sweetener (use sugar if you prefer) to taste. I add a little sugar to the fruits to get the juices running; you can skip that step if the fruit is already juicy.
Is it even possible to have too many salad recipes? Possibly if you hate fruits and vegetables, but then you wouldn’t be reading this recipe, right? The options are limitless, especially if you’re willing to experiment. So when I read a recipe featuring only sugar snap peas, I paid attention. They grow well on the California Coast, so we eat them with dips, cut into chunks in salads, and of course a stir fry, but it never occurred to me to use them as a single ingredient salad.
Smoothies are a perfect breakfast food, and they’re also a fabulous addendum to a book and a hammock or any other slow-food activity. Use whole or 1% milk if you prefer, soy milk or fruit juice, and choose your favorite fruits. The second best thing to being a healthy fast food is that they’re very adaptable. Here’s one version. Make up your own – just be sure to perk it up with vanilla!
Courtesy of David Lebovitz: The Sweet Life in Paris
I should mention before the recipe that David was so taken by the name “Shakerato” posted on the café board for this iced coffee drink, that he ordered it. Turns out he also liked it.
When I lived in the countryside, I made this exquisite Double Vanilla Poundcake with Rum-Vanilla Glaze, partly to demonstrate the quality of the vanilla I carried and also, to promote The Vanilla Cookbook, which came out in 1986. The irony of the situation was that people wanted to buy the cakes, not the cookbooks!
Jam Cakes are a quick, cheerful, dessert with ingredients that you’re bound to have, unless you haven’t been to the store in weeks. The recipe makes six or more cupcake size “cakelets,” depending on the size of your tins. Perfect when you can’t stop thinking of something sweet but you don’t want an entire cake. That said, the recipe is a snap to double.
In the mid-1970s, Julee Rosso and Sheila Lukins launched The Silver Palate, a tiny take-out shop in Manhattan, featuring really good food to be enjoyed at home, on a picnic, or a special occasion or office party. The shop was an instant success and the food was uniquely special as the 1970s was a gateway to a new way of cooking, a combining of – or inspired by- recipes from many cultures but with a distinctly modern twist. Chicken Marbella is one of the recipes these two very smart women prepared.
This is an amazingly smooth, creamy, over-the-top delicious tart. I had been traveling through Italy and Greece for three weeks then spent two days in London before heading home. Along the way I had eaten more than my share of amazing cakes, tarts, and cookies, as well as the exquisite lemon desserts in Sorrento and the Amalfi Coast. The irony of this is that the last morning in London, we went to a coffee shop before heading to the airport and there, in the dessert case, was a Sicilian Lemon Tart that cried out to be enjoyed. Of course I obliged. It was hands down one of the best desserts of the trip. In London, for crying out loud!
Custards are a special comfort food that kind of fell off our collective radar in the last 30 -40 years, but they really deserve a place at the table. Eaten warm on cold, rainy or snow-slushy days, or room temperature, even chilled with fresh fruits in warm, sunny weather, they offer us a sense of well-being. What I love about Maple Vanilla Custard is the symbiosis of these two flavors as they play off each other. Maple syrup brings a delicate, almost woodsy sweetness that is complemented by the more complex flavor profile of pure vanilla. The magic happens when the flavors explode on the palate and tongue. Worries fall away, the awfulness of a sore throat eases, and for a few minutes all’s well with the world.
Chocolate Speaks: Who can resist Dark Chocolate Truffles? If you are new at candy making, truffles are one of the easiest candies to make. Even better, you can make traditional truffles using heavy cream and butter, or you can choose a healthier version by making them vegan. Follow the directions and I guarantee you’ll be a star. The trick is using the best ingredients.
A few months ago, I saw a winter squash I hadn’t seen for a long, long time at a local farmers market. I asked the seller what he called the squash; he said, “Mexican squash.” I chuckled, as squash, like corn and beans, are the three most important foods of the Americas that fueled Mesoamerica, long before the conquest. I told him that I had eaten this very same variety of squash in the 1960s when I lived in Guatemala. There, the indigenous name for the squash was Guicoy. I immediately purchased it as it triggered memories of being charmed by the baked stuffed squash filled with ground meat, onions, rice and spices.
Recently I made Creme Anglaise to go with David Lebovitz’s recipe for Apricot Souffles. Normally I use heavy cream (double cream) to accompany a rich dessert or I whip the cream and flavor it with vanilla, but I rarely think Creme Anglaise. However, when I made it for the souffles it was like re-connecting with an old friend. I realized how perfect it is on so many things — fresh or dried fruit compotes, slices of warm cake or pie, fresh berries, even adding its creamy deliciousness over French Toast. In England it is nearly always offered with with “puddings,” which really means what we Americans call cakes, and David Lebovitz uses it to accompany not only the light Apricot Souffle but also with his dense, rich Chocolate Souffle.
