Peach-Blueberry Crumble Topped Pie

Peaches! Ripe, juicy white peaches just begged to go into a pie. Thought I'd combine them with some blackberries from down the driveway, but it's been too hot to pick berries. Decided to go with blueberries instead and it really is a winning combo.

For this pie you take your favorite pie dough and make a single crust pie shell, then fill it with pie weights (inside a round of parchment is my favorite way to do it, and I use lentils as the weights).

While the pie shell is baking, peel and pit the peaches, then slice them. I doused them with lemon juice, too, to keep them from turning brown at the cut edges.

A mixture of bread crumbs and cornstarch in the bottom of the finished, cooled (and pie weights removed) pie shell help soak up some of the juices from the fruit.

The crumble topping gets made in a medium bowl. Don't forget the nutmeg...it goes so well with peaches. If possible, grate it fresh from an actual nutmeg.

 Now the fun begins. Half the peaches go into the pie shell, half the blueberries are scattered around, the second half of the peaches go on top of that, then the rest of the blueberries. Mound the filling in the middle a bit if you can.

The topping is spread on top and it's ready for the preheated oven.

In a half an hour or so you have a beautiful pie! Let it cool to at least room temperature before serving. There. Summer in a pie.

Peach and Blueberry Crumb Topped Pie

Pie dough for one crust
Pie weights

1 cup blueberries
4 ripe peaches, peeled and sliced and pit removed

1 tablespoon cornstarch
1/4 cup dry breadcrumbs
1/4 teaspoon lemon zest (optional)

 Topping:

1/2 cup rolled oats
1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/8 teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg
6 tablespoons (1/2 stick + 2 tablespoons) cold butter

 Rollout pie dough to about 10" in diameter. Line a 8" or 9" pie plate with the dough, crimping the dough around the edges of the pan. Prick lightly all over. Line with parchment paper and weigh with pie weights (raw beans do fine and can be stored and re-used). Bake in a preheated 400 degree oven for 10 minutes. Remove from oven and let cool for 10 minutes. Remove pie weights.

 Prepare filling by putting corn starch,  dry bread crumbs and  lemon zest (if using) into a bowl and mix together gently. Sprinkle on the baked and cooled (and weights removed) pie shell. Then add half the peaches. Sprinkle half the blueberries evenly over the peaches, then the rest of the peaches, then the rest of the blueberries.

Prepare the topping by mixing the oats, flour, brown sugar, pecans and nutmeg in a medium mixing bowl. Using a pastry cutter, two knives, or your fingers, cut the cold butter into the mixture until incorporated and clumps form.

Pour the crumb mixture over the fruit filling. Spread it to cover the pie.

 Bake the pie in a preheated 350 degree F oven until the topping is lightly browned, about 20-25 minutes. Remove from oven and cool on a rack. Serves 6-8.

 

Peach Time

Peaches are one of my favorite foods and now it's high peach season...it's one of the few things I like about summer.

Too late tonight to post the whole thing, but tomorrow I hope to do a post on what I made with these beautiful white peaches! 

A Small Treat with Summer Berries

I've made Financiers before, but it's been a while. Not sure why I've waited because these are delightful little treats that showcase summer berries and fruit. They are perfect with tea or coffee. They were named after the financial men of Paris (I believe). They are just the right amount of pastry and very rich! This recipe by David Lebovitz is a good one, as his recipes usually are.

One of the wonderful thing about these is that they use browned butter. It's not difficult to make browned butter, but you do have to keep an eye on the pan and focus on how browned the milk solids are getting. Stop when you get a whiff of toasted nuts from the pan, but before the solids get dark brown.

When I first made this I used slivered blanched almonds and ground them in the food processor. This time all I had to do was weigh some almond flour from Costco. I still used the food processor to mix the sugars and the almond flour, but it was like three short pulses!

You can use any kind of fruit in these, but I like fresh berries, especially blackberries. I made these on July 17th and in honor of Max. When he was a little guy he used to go with Sweetie in the morning to walk our dog Shogun around the block. When it was blackberry season (about now) he would come home with his hands stained with blackberry juice...and there were usually similar stains around his mouth since the joy wasn't just picking the berries, but eating them right away. 

For this batch I used blackberries in some, halved tiny strawberries in others, and a few had pieces of nectarines. The ones in the muffin cups also got a sprinkle of sliced almonds. I made five in the muffin cups and a dozen in a cast iron mold I have. They become fairy cakes and are quite cute, plus a better size for snacking. The photo at the top of the post shows one of the small ones that has nectarine and blackberry.

Summer Fruit Financiers with Almond Flour
makes about 12 small cakes in muffin cups
Based on a recipe in Ripe for Dessert by David Lebovitz


7 tablespoons unsalted butter
157 grams almond flour (about 1 1/2 cups)
½ cup granulated sugar
½ cup powdered sugar
5 tablespoons flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
4 large egg whites
½ teaspoon almond extract
one 6-oz basket blackberries

Position the oven rack in the center of the oven and pre-hear to 400 degrees F. Butter a 12 cup muffin tin.

In a skillet, heat the butter until it begins to sizzle. Continue to cook over low heat until the edges begin to darken and the butter gives off a nutty aroma. Remove from the heat. (The butter may sputter and splatter while cooking. If you want, place an overturned colander over the pan to protect yourself.)

In a food processor, grind the almonds with the granulated and powdered sugars. When fine, add the flour and the salt and pulse to mix. While the processor is running, gradually pour in the egg whites and add the almond extract. Stop the machine, and add the warm butter, pulsing as you pour until the batter is just mixed.

Divide the batter evenly among the buttered muffin cups Batter will come up about 1/3 of the way. Poke 3 or 4 blackberries into each cake.

Bake for 18 minutes, until puffy and deep golden brown. Watch so they don’t burn. Let stand a few minutes, then remove them from the pan and cool on a rack. Store cooled cakes in an airtight container for up to a week.

Variations: Substitute peach, nectarine, or plum slices for the blackberries, peeling first if desired. Cut the fruit into ½ inch slices or chunks and lay them over the top of each little cake or push into the batter if a chunk, like with berries, before baking. You can also sprinkle the top of each cake with untoasted sliced almonds before baking.

Do You Like Mushrooms?

Sweetie loves mushrooms! It isn't really mushroom season, but we have a local place that grows them year-round. Like many foods, mushrooms aren't truly seasonal anymore when they are in the market and at a reasonable price every month of the year.

This casserole takes a bit of time because you're making the sauce from scratch, but it's not difficult. You end up with a deeply savory dish that goes well with almost anything grilled, so it's great this time of year. Everything is done on the top of the stove, too, so no oven necessary. That's a real issue since it is truly hot in many places around the world right now.

The starting place is a home-made mushroom sauce, plus boiled pasta. You can use any pasta you like, but these rotelli hold up to a lot of stirring, they tend to capture the sauce well, and you can find them in the multi-colored version I used. The pasta is plain, orange (probably has a bit of carrot juice in it) and green (maybe from spinach juice). This type of pasta takes longer to cook than noodles like spaghetti, but it's also bite sized, so easier to eat.

I confess that I made this casserole over a week ago. I found the photos in my photo group and realized that I never posted it. Since the recipe was made-up, I hope I can recapture all the ingredients!

If you make this, I'm betting you will enjoy the richness, full mushroom flavor, cheesiness from the two kinds of cheese, and the excellent sauce. It reheats well, too, should you have any leftovers.

Mushroom-Pasta Casserole

my own recipe
serves 4-6

1/2 pound (half a package) multi-colored dry rotelli pasta
boiling salted water to cook the pasta according to package directions

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter (salted or unsalted)
4 oz. crimini (brown) small mushrooms
2 tablespoons finely chopped yellow or white onion
4 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon dry thyme
1 cup broth, mushroom if you have it, but chicken, beef and vegetable are OK, too
1/2 cup milk - any level of fat OK
salt and pepper to taste

1/2 cup shredded Swiss cheese
1/4 cup shredded Parmesan - best quality available

Cook the pasta until al dente in the salted boiling water. Drain and keep warm.

While the pasta is cooking, in a large pot or Dutch oven, heat the olive oil and melt the butter, then sauté the mushrooms and onions in the olive oil and melted butter until the onion is translucent. Add the flour and dry thyme and stir, over low heat, for a minute. Raise heat to medium-high. Combine the broth and milk and pour, all at once, to the skillet, stirring constantly, until the sauce begins to thicken. Taste and add salt and pepper to taste.

Add the drained warm pasta to the mushroom sauce and stir well to combine. There may be some 'extra' sauce in the bottom of the pot. That's OK. Stir in the Swiss cheese, smooth the top to create a casserole, then sprinkle the Parmesan evenly over the casserole.

Cover and let sit over the lowest heat available, for five minutes. This will allow the flavors to meld a bit and for the extra sauce to be absorbed into the pasta.

Serve hot...and enjoy!

Of Course It's the Garden!

raised bed with cherry tomato seedlings, bean seedlings and a marigold plant

Sooo you can see that I have not been posting lately. The good news is that the reason is mainly the garden. We finally have had good weather, with warm enough nights to plant.

The Black Krim tomatoes that I bought seedlings for have set tomatoes. On the one planted earliest the tomatoes look like they might ripen in a couple of weeks. Most of the Black Krims and all of the cherry tomatoes will really be giving a harvest bounty in September as is the case most years. I grew the cherry tomatoes from seed and there should be three colors once they start producing.

Planted three zucchini seedlings, again ones I purchased. Two are doing well and one died. I might buy one more and try again. 

Bean seedlings, planted directly in the soil from seed just last week, have sprouted and grown up enough to have the first leaves and new ones coming in below. I planted two kinds, a thin green French style one and an heirloom spotted on that I save the seeds for last fall. Drip irrigation means they get the right amount of water.

Last of all I just planted the seeds for small cucumbers. They haven't even sprouted. I really have gotten a late start this year due to the shoulder injury when I had a divot biopsy about a month ago. It's all good, but I managed to mess up my shoulder joint at the time, so there was no soil prep, weeding, planting, etc. just at the time when it was finally warm enough to do all that.

Still, there should be veggies by August and plenty in September.

The flowers have been awesome. First there were the self-seeded nasturtium in shades of yellow, orange and red.

Then came the lilacs (no photo), iris (above), early roses (below), followed by morning glories and daisies (above). 

Now I have some lobelia with bright blue faces (above with the marigold), more roses and some marigolds and pot marigolds (calendula) (no photo). The lipstick sage and bright red geraniums (directly above) keep blooming all year and add a welcoming note to the front steps.

Happy Summer!