Sour Cherry and Cream Cheese Cobbler. Last week Seven and I were given permission to steal as many sour cherries as we could pick…so we took our sand buckets, picked for about half an hour, and came home with a few pounds before figuring out what to do with them! I’ve never really been a cherry person, BUT - I like the flavor. Love it, actually, but as for eating them? I don’t. As in, . It’s the . Anyway, after pitting about a pound of these sour cherries, I decided on making a version of Dorie Greenspan’s Cherry Rhubarb Cobbler that we made last year (or was it the year before?) So, Sour Cherry and Cream Cheese Cobbler… The topping is divine and full of ginger, which makes the baking portion of the experience heavenly to smell.
{*style:<b>The Topping </b>*} 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour Zest of 1/2 lemon 3 tablespoons packed brown sugar 2 teaspoons baking powder 1/4 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon ground ginger 1/4 teaspoon cardamom 6 Tablespoons Salted Butter, cut into 18 pieces 1/2 cup milk To Make the topping: 1/2 cup sugar 1 egg. Strawberries and dumplings. Have you met my favorite chicken and dumpling dish?
Well, let me introduce you to its sweet summer fling: strawberries and dumplings, or in this case, strawberries so tiny, one took a nap inside a soda cap and dumplings so plump, they nudged and piled upon one another like newborn puppies. Yes, in case that didn’t give it away: the cuteness of this dish nearly killed me dead. I caught this “Dessert of the Month” from Gourmet.com last week, and knew it had to be ours.
I won’t lie, as soon as it becomes remotely summery around here I spend more of my time scheming ways to avoiding cooking than I do actually fixing things. Quick-stewed strawberries with an easy dough scooped on top? Sold, to the laziest bidder! I am endlessly entertained by baked fruit desserts, and frankly, the goofier the name the better — peach slumps and blueberry buckles and apple bettys and pear pandowdys. As it turns out, I make a lot of things with strawberries. Strawberries and Dumplings Adapted wildly from Gourmet. Nectarine brown butter buckle. I have to apologize in advance: this is a cookbook reject.
I know! “A reject?!” You’re probably thinking. “Now why would I want your rejects?” Needless to say, working on a cookbook is keeping me busy. But mostly, however, it’s been fun. So how about this buckle? One year ago: Cantaloupe SalsaTwo years ago: Herbed Summer Squash and Potato Torte and Chocolate Hazelnut BiscottiThree years ago: Zucchini Bread Nectarine Brown Butter Buckle The brown butter flavor in this cake is woefully subtle; I’d hoped it would be louder but there are too many other flavors clamoring for your tastebuds’ attention. Just a heads-up on the baking time; I had a hard time guessing when the cake was done. Streusel Reserved butter from cake (above) 1/2 cup (3 1/2 ounces or 100 grams) sugar 1/2 cup (2 1/4 ounces or 64 grams) all purpose flour 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon Pinch of salt Brown your butter: Melt butter in a small/medium saucepan over medium-low heat.
Prepare you pan: Preheat oven to 350°F. Blueberry boy bait. A few weeks ago, as I was going on about how much I like just about every color and shade of baked fruit desserts, the goofier the name — be it “grunt”, “slump”, “buckle”, or “betty” — the better, a reader named Shirley asked me if I’d ever tried anything called Blueberry Boy Bait. And people, seeing as I unabashedly choose magazines for their covers and fawn over the titles of books (“I Was Told There’d Be Cake,” anyone?) That I have no interest in reading, let’s just say that although I had no idea what Blueberry Boy Bait was, I knew it would be made, in my kitchen, sooner than soon. [Well, actually I'd bookmarked it for August, when I believed blueberries to be in season, only to find them at my local greenmarket four days later where I proceeded to plotz from happiness.
Bring on the boy-baiting!] One year ago: I finished a wedding cake! Two years ago: Rosanne Cash’s Potato Salad Blueberry Boy Bait Adapted from Cook’s Country, which adapted it from the original Serves 12, generously.