Another Galette For Summer

 With so many kinds of fruit available now that stone fruit are coming in and strawberries and other berries are beginning to be available in lavish amounts, it was time for Sweetie to have one of his favorite desserts...the freeform pie I call galette...although that might not be the correct spelling.

The great thing about these pies is that they are easy, go together quickly, and are a great way to showcase whatever is ripe now.

For this one I combined strawberries and apricots from the farm stand on Hwy. 12, just east of Sebastopol, and some raspberries from Costco. I did toss the prepared fruit with a mixture of cornstarch and sugar, but I guess I should have used more cornstarch. When it first came out of the oven this freeform pie had juice all around it. Of course Sweetie just waited until the juices cooled and then scooped them up and ate them, but it did make the bottom a bit...oohhh nooooo...soggy. Next time, more cornstarch when the berries are this juicy.

On the health front, my back is finally better and I again have some energy, so I've been pruning a bit, deadheading the roses, and cleaning the fridge...plus doing plenty of reading of trashy summer vacation books. Fun!

For those of you who keep up with our homemaking and projects, we had tree trimmers come and cut back a few trees, mostly for safety and fire prevention issues and we have a new window on order to replace a single pane one that is original to the house. With the current cost of windows, it will be a while before we replace any more of them!

Apricot-Berry Galette

2 apricots, cut into slices, then halved
2 pints fresh strawberries, hulled and sliced
1 cup fresh raspberries, washed and patted dry
1 prepared pie dough round (I use Pillsbury ReadyCrust)
1/4 cup sugar (less if fruit is very sweet)
zest from 1 lemon
1 tablespoon cornstarch (this was too little...try at least 2 tablespoons, maybe even three)
sparkling sugar/sanding sugar (optional)

Put the fruit together in a large bowl. 

 Roll out the pie dough to a 12-inch diameter circle and place on a parchment lined rimmed baking sheet. I used a pizza pan and parchment. 

Preheat the oven to 450 degrees.

In a smaller bowl put the sugar, add the lemon zest and rub together with your fingers to soak the sugar in the lemon oils from the zest. Mix in the cornstarch. Add the cornstarch mixture to the fruit and toss gently with your clean hands until coated and no more cornstarch is visible. Total amount of filling is about 4.5 - 5 cups. 

Mound the fruit mixture in the center of the dough and pat it down, then fold the edges of the pie dough over the berry mixture (about 4 for my galette), brush dough with some water (about 1 tablespoon) and sprinkle on some sanding sugar (optional) and you have the makings of a delicious dessert that is almost a pie, but easier and rustic looking. Gently pat the folds to keep them together, which holds in the filling.

Bake at 450 degrees for 10 minutes, then reduce heat to 350 and bake until golden brown and cooked through.

Let cool on a rack 10 minutes so you don't burn your tongue. Serve in wedges on plates. Softly whipped cream or vanilla ice cream is optional but nice.

Fruit Basket Coffee Cake

Summer certainly brings lots of kinds of fruit. Right now we have ripe peaches, luscious dark cherries, olallieberries right off the vine, and raspberries, plus green grapes and some plums that are almost ripe which are turning a lovely shade of red-gold on the tree down the hill. The plums and olallieberries are the only local fruit, but the cherries, peaches and raspberries are certainly seasonal.

Yesterday I made a lovely coffee cake to showcase the peaches, cherries, olallieberries and raspberries. It's a variation of the Nectarine Cake in Lauren Chattman's Cake Keeper Cakes book, one of the great cookbooks we baked from during my time with the Cake Slice Bakers.

I made one and a half times the cake batter because the original recipe only makes a thin layer of cake and I wanted one thick enough to absorb all the fruit juices. I also added some almond extract, while keeping the vanilla extract. For the topping I used brown sugar, pecans and ground nutmeg instead of white sugar and cinnamon...they recipe gave two choices for nuts and pecans were one of them.

I baked it in a nine-inch springform pan instead of a ten-inch one. Because I had such a wonderful choice of fruits, I used cherry halves around the outer edge, then peach slices, then olallieberries and raspberries in the middle.

Do watch this cake because the nuts might get too brown...just tent with foil if that happens. Because  the batter is deeper than the original, it took a while to bake, but came out moist with a nice crumb and browned crust. We actually enjoyed this cake for dinner dessert, so I served it with soy vanilla ice cream and that was a great choice. Sweetie added some whipped cream to his, and you can always add extra prepared fresh fruit.

I've never been a big fan of summer, but sitting outside for dinner because it's still warm by 7 o'clock makes summer a bit easier to take. All of the beautiful flowers that are blooming in the garden also are a benefit of summer. Too bad it gets so hot!

Do try this cake, especially if you have some ripe fruit on hand. You can use all one kind of fruit or two kinds, or three if four is too much. With most kinds of fruit, push them down into the batter a bit to allow the juices to soak into the cake. Enjoy!

Fruit Basket Cake with Nutmeg Nut Topping
based on Nectarine Cake in Lauren Chattman's Cake Keep Cakes
serves 8-10

For the Topping:
2 tablespoons brown sugar, packed
1/4 teaspoon ground nutmeg
1/2 cup pecans, finely chopped

For the Cake:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 1/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks, 6 oz.), unsalted butter or non-dairy margarine, softened
3 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
2 cups assorted stone fruit and/or berries or one kind or fruit, ripe - peel plums or peaches and pit them, pit cherries, pit nectarines or apricots, wash and dry berries

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Grease the insides of a springform pan, 9-inch or 10-inch preferred.

Combine the brown sugar, nutmeg and chopped nuts in a small bowl. Set aside.

Combine the flour, baking powder and salt in a medium bowl or on a sheet of waxed paper.

In the bowl of a stand mixer, beat the sugar and butter together on medium-high speed until fluffy, about 3 minutes. Scrape bowl and beaters as needed.

With the mixer on low, add the eggs, one at a time, beating to combine the eggs with the butter mixture after each addition. Scrape bowl and beaters as needed.

Beat in the vanilla and almond extracts. With mixer on low, gradually add the flour mixture, a 1/2 cup at a time. Scrape bowl and beaters as needed and at the end. Use scraper to give batter a final stir to make sure all is combined.

Scrape batter into the prepared pan and smooth the top of the batter. Carefully place the prepared fruit, pushing down a bit into the batter. If using more than one kind of fruit, you can create a pattern.

Sprinkle with the topping. Bake until golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean, about 45-55 minutes. Cool cake in pan for 5 minutes, then run a knife around the sides, unhinge the springform and cool cake on wire rack until tepid. Remove from the springform bottom and place on a serving plate.

Serve with more fruit, ice cream, whip cream or just as is.

Store uneaten cake, if any, in a cake keeper or wrap in plastic and store at room temperature for up to 2 days.

Frangipane Apricot Tart

The fresh apricot season is pretty short. When I spotted some organic apricots that were ripe and on sale at a local market on Monday I bought them even though I wasn't sure how I would use them. Some went on my morning cereal, but another five were used in a lovely tart for our Thursday dinner.

We had invited a friend over. He has been eating on his own for a week or so while his wife helps sort out her mother's house after her mother moved into a senior residence. Sweetie grilled some salmon and we had fresh corn on the cob and a lovely green salad. I served some seeded yeasted bread that I had made that day, too, but the tart was probably my favorite part of the meal.

I made the sweet dough for the crust in the food processor, which is quick and easy. It is sort of a cookie dough and I think there was too much of it. That made the crust a bit too tough to cut with the side of a fork. Next time I'll use less and perhaps bake it for a shorter time, too.

For the frangipane I usually use almond flour. Unfortunately I ran out and when I went to the market, they were out, too! They did have a mixed nut flour with almonds, pecans, walnuts, and pistachios so I bought that and added it to the almond flour I did have. It was great, even if the color was darker and less appealing to look at. The golden apricots really popped against that darker filling. Although the apricots were ripe, they were a little tart, but that worked fine since the mixed nut flour filling was on the sweet side and very moist. Overall it was a great dessert!

Try this yourself. Working with the crust dough is like working with kid's clay...really easy and fun. The filling goes together quickly if you have the nut flour. Blanching and peeling and pitting the apricots was the most time consuming. You could use canned apricots instead, but fresh is so much better, with an intense apricot flavor, so it is worth taking the time to prep the fruit.

If you like your tart a little fancier, you can melt some apricot jam in the microwave and use a pastry brush to paint the top of the tart, especially the fruit, with the jam. As it cools it will thicken and create a lovely shine on the tart. Sliced or flaked almonds also make a nice decoration around the edge while the jam is still wet. Of course this is optional...the tart is delicious without.

Sweet Tart Dough from Dorie Greenspan's Baking; From My Home To Yours

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup confectioners' sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 stick plus 1 tablespoon (9 tablespoons) very cold (or frozen) unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 large egg yolk

Put the flour, confectioners' sugar and salt in a food processor and pulse a couple of times to combine. 

Scatter the cold pieces of butter over the dry ingredients and pulse until the butter is coarsely cut in. 

Stir the yolk to break it up, and add it a little at a time, pulsing after each addition. When the egg is in, process in long pulses, about 10 seconds each, until the dough forms clumps and curds. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and, very lightly and sparingly, knead the dough just to incorporate any dry ingredients that still exist in the mixture.

Gather dough into a ball, then flatten it and put it into a 9-inch tart pan, using your fingers to push the dough into the corners and flutes of the pan, while keeping the thickness as even as possible. If dough looks too thick, remove some and redistribute dough to an even layer. Use a rolling pin, rolled over the top rim, to clean the top. Gather up any leftover pieces and wrap in plastic wrap, and put in the fridge for patching, if necessary. Prick all over and freeze for at least 30 minutes, but longer is O.K.

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. Put the rack in the center of the oven.

Remove tart shell from freezer. Spray a sheet of foil with cooking spray/oil and put, oil side down on the tart, pressing down to mold the foil to the tart shape.

Bake for 25 minutes. Remove the foil carefully and use the back of a spoon to gently press down any puffed crust. If necessary, use the extra dough from the fridge to patch any holes, then bake another few minutes. Let crust cool.

Prepare the frangipane filling:

3 tablespoons soft butter or margarine

1/4 teaspoon salt

2/3 cup sugar

1 tablespoon + 2 teaspoons all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon almond extract

2 large eggs

3/4 cup almond flour or mixed nut flour

10 apricot halves, peeled and patted dry

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 350°F.

To make the filling:  Beat together the butter, salt, sugar, flour, and almond extract.

Beat in the eggs, then add the almond flour, stirring just to combine.

To assemble the tart: Spread the filling in the bottom of the crust.

Place the apricot halves in a pattern on top of the filling, pressing them down gently so the bottom of the fruit is covered.

Bake the tart in the preheated 350 degree F oven for 45 to 40 minutes, until the top is lightly browned. Filling will puff up around the apricots.  Cool slightly or completely before serving. 

Apricots and Berries

We have reached one of the great times of year for a baker. The first of the stone fruits are coming into the markets. Ripe, fragrant apricots, tender and juicy white nectarines, regular nectarines, peaches - both regular and white, are all ready to be turned into pies, crisps, buckles, muffins, and tarts, to name a few. Cherries are ripe, too. Here is a photo from our local farm stand. Don't they make your mouth water?

We are also beginning to have wonderful berries. Our local strawberries started late this year and my boysenberry shrubs are just now producing ripe king berries.

The garden has been growing like crazy. The only produce we have harvested is the zucchini, but today we found all three kinds ready to pick...dark green, light green and yellow. Will probably have them grilled tonight! My lovely poppies have started to bloom, too. At the top of the post are two that just opened yesterday. Aren't they lovely?

Recently I surprised Sweetie with an apricot and strawberry gallette, which is a free form pie. I used store-bought pie crust and just rolled the round out a little more so that some of the dough could be folded up over the fruit filling. At the bottom I sprinkled a layer of ground almonds and sprinkled that with about a tablespoon of flour. I knew that the strawberries in particular would produce a lot of juice and hoped that the nuts and flour would soak them up some. Well, good plan, but I needed more because the juice broke through cracks in the dough and created a pool to either side of the gallette. Not a problem. I put the gallette on parchment so we just scraped up the cooked juice when we served up our portions.

This was really tasty and, perhaps, the essence of late spring.

Apricot Strawberry Gallette
Serves 4-6

1 pie crust round, either home made or store-bought
about 1/3 cup ground almonds (or whirl some almonds in the food processor with 1 tablespoon sugar until finely ground. The sugar keeps it from turning to paste.)
1-2 tablespoons flour
4 ripe apricots, washed, dried, seed removed and cut into 1/8ths
1/2 pint strawberries, washed, dried, hulled and sliced
2 tablespoons sugar
a few drops almond extract
water
Sparkling sugar (optional)

Preheat oven to 425 degrees F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.

On a lightly floured surface, roll the pie crust 2-3 inches wider than needed for a 9" pie. Transfer dough to parchment paper on baking sheet. Draping dough over rolling pin works well for moving it to the baking sheet. Put an even layer of the ground almonds in the center of the dough, leaving about three inches around the edges with no almonds. Sprinkle the flour evenly over the almonds. Set aside.

In a medium bowl mix the prepared apricots and strawberries, the sugar and the almond extract. Pour this mixture into the middle of the prepared dough disk. Make sure that fruit goes over all the ground almonds, but not into the plain dough. Mound fruit in center. Gently pull plain dough up over the fruit, pleating as needed as you go around the disc. Use water on your fingertip to seal the pleats if necessary. Use a little more water (or some milk) brushed over the top of the gallette to help it brown and to hold a sprinkling of sparkling sugar, if desired.

Bake in preheated oven for 20 minutes, or until pastry top is golden brown and juices are bubbly.
Serve after cooling 5 minutes or cool completely, then serve.

Apricot Coffee Cake

I know that the post title is boring, but the coffee cake wasn't. It was zingy with fresh apricots, crunchy due to the sugary topping, and warm and mellow and tangy because it was warm from the oven and had some buttermilk in it. I love that this one is baked in a cast iron skillet because it gets a bit crusty on the bottom, too. We had some the evening it was made, but I didn't take photos. The next morning we had some for breakfast with our fruit bowl and some coffee. Heavenly!

The fresh apricots came for our local strawberry farm on Hwy 12. The wonderful family that farms there are from Thailand and the stand was recently written up in the regional paper. Lo and behold, the lines became longer and longer, especially on weekends. A couple of years ago hardly anyone knew about the place, which seriously has the sweetest strawberries ever. You never know when they will be open, so if we drove by and the flag was out, we would pull over and buy berries, or what ever else they were selling.

Last year they started putting in a lot of other crops including onions, garlic, melons, cabbage, green beans, and more. The stand started to be open more, too. Everybody wins and some great recipes are swapped while we are in line waiting for our turn. I have yet to see anybody grumpy about the wait, probably because they know that in the end will be amazing strawberries! Recently there have also been sweet cherries, blueberries, and these apricots. It's pretty hot this weekend, so next week there should be even more bounty.

My Mom received a digital photo frame for Mothers Day so I have been spending time recently going through my photo files and putting pictures up on the frame. I'm starting to scan old photos from pre-digital days so that they can go on the frame, too. Good times and good memories overall.

Happy Sunday, dear reader.

Apricot Almond Coffee Cake
An Elle original recipe

4 tablespoons sweet butter, at room temperature
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 egg, at room temperature
1/4 cup buttermilk, at room temperature
1/4 teaspoon almond extract
1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
4-5 fresh, ripe apricots, peeled, pitted, and sliced

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Butter well a heavy 9-inch skillet that can go in the oven.

Cream butter and sugar until light. Beat in egg. Scrape beater and bowl.

Stir together the buttermilk and almond extract. Set aside.

Sift dry ingredients together. Beat half into creamed mixture, beat in half of the milk, Repeat, beating well.

Pour batter into prepared skillet. Arrange apricot slices on top of batter...5 pretty much covers the top.

Bake for 25 minutes. While cake bakes, prepare the topping.

Topping
1/2 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1/2 cup chopped almonds (I used whole raw almonds with skin on them)
4 tablespoons sweet butter

Cut ingredients for topping together in a small bowl with a fork.

After cake has baked for 25 minutes, open oven and quickly crumble topping over apricot slices.

Close oven and bake for another 8 minutes, or until cake is firm and has pulled away from edges of the skillet.

Spring Fruits in Scones

If you read through some of my blog posts it probably seems like I bake all the time, just because. In truth I used to do just that, but for a while now I've had to curtail my impulse to bake for a couple of reasons, but mainly because as we get older it seems to be harder to burn off those extra calories and so fewer calories are needed. While I would love to eat nothing but baked goods, good sense encourages me to fill up on fruits and veggies and quality protein instead.

That said, I still love to bake, so it is wonderful when I have a reason to bake something as delicious as scones. This past weekend I attended a P.E.O. conference in LA and we had a very early flight, so I made scones for Sweetie and I to enjoy at the start of our trip, plus I made a few extra to enjoy with committee members during our early morning committee meeting on Sunday. Since I had fresh blueberries and apricots on hand, plus a bag of sweet, moist dried apricots, I decided to make scones with them, some sliced almonds, and to use buttermilk for the liquid. It's tang goes so well with those fruits and it helped to keep the scones moist until Sunday morning, even though I baked them on Friday. P.E.O. supports women in their educational goals through scholarships and low interest loans, plus we own a college, Cottey College. The effort is almost all done by volunteers, like my fellow committee members, so they deserved some fine scones for getting up so early, right?

These were rough looking because I barely gathered the dough bits together, similar in technique to making Irish soda bread. The upside of that is they were tender and almost flaky. There was enough butter that you didn't need to add any and the flavor combination with the apricot, blueberry, lemon and almond flavors, combined with buttermilk, was excellent and hit the spot in the early morning with a cup of coffee. These don't take much time and would take even less without the dried apricots and if you left the peel on the fresh apricots, so mix up a batch yourself. You'll be glad you did.

Blueberry and Double Apricot Scones
Adapted from a Ladies Home Journal recipe March ‘97
Heat oven to 425 degrees F. Grease a cookie sheet or use parchment or silicone mat.

3 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
½ cup sugar
2 ½ teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon baking soda
¾ cup unsalted butter, at room temperature (no substitutions)
1/4 cup finely diced dried apricots
½ cup chopped fresh, peeled apricots½ cup fresh blueberries, dusted with a bit of flour
½ cup sliced almonds
1 1/4 cup buttermilk
1 egg
1 tablespoon grated lemon peel

Glaze: 2 tablespoons heavy cream
2 tablespoons sparkling sugar

Combine flour, sugar, baking powder, salt, and baking soda in a large bowl. With pastry blender or two knives, cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add diced dried fruit, fresh apricot pieces and the blueberries and sliced almonds. 

Combine buttermilk, egg and lemon peel in a bowl or measuring cup. Pour over crumb mixture. Stir together with fork just until mixture comes together. Gather dough gently into a ball; it might be crumbly...that is OK. Divide dough in half and transfer to prepared cookie sheets. Shape each piece into a 6 inch x 1 inch thick circle, 2 inches apart. Using floured knife, cut each circle into 6 wedges.

For glaze, brush tops with cream and sprinkle with sugar.

Bake 20 – 25 minutes until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Makes 12 scones.

Lots of Fruit

What would you make if you had some really nice fresh apricots, ripe and fragrant and about the size of a tennis ball? How about ripe, sweet and juicy strawberries? Firm, dusky blueberries? Fat sweet dark red cherries? I have some of all of those from a local farm stand in my kitchen right now and the first of the ollaliberries are going to be ripe within the week. I don't use a lot of jam or jelly except for making cookies at Christmas, so it has to be something else. We do eat lots of fruit fresh and with no preparation other than a quick wash and removal of stems or stem end leaves or inedible peels in the case of mangoes.

If you have a recipe to go with your suggestion, that would be excellent! Don't want the fruits of spring and early summer to come and go without some fun cooking and baking!

Playing Around With Apricots And Pecan

One of the many things I love about Dorie Greenspan's recipes is that she often includes a sidebar with suggestions for changes one can make to the recipe. My favorites are the ones she calls 'Playing Around' because it resembles what I often do with recipes, which is to substitute out ingredients to give a whole new flavor blend to the recipe.

I recently baked up one of her quick breads, the Date-Nut Loaf found in Baking: from my home to yours. In the Playing Around section she suggests that the dates can be exchanged for other dried fruits, including apricots. Sweetie loves apricots, plus the dates I thought I could use turned out to be too old, so I used a cup of diced dried apricots (which are actually moist and sticky, so they were also dusted with some flour before being added to the batter) instead of the dates. Because I like apricots and pecans, the nuts used were pecans instead of walnuts. I also left out the almond extract so that the apricot and pecan flavors would shine. They did! The crumb on this is moist and fairly light. Some quick breads have a dense texture, but not this one. This was one of four recipes I made for a meeting of our regional scholarship group. The others might show up here later: Bran Muffins with Walnuts and Raisins baked in mini-muffin pans, Cranberry Orange Yeast Braid, and Rosemary Focaccia Bread, which I've made before, but this time I baked it in a 9 x 13-inch pan instead of two cake pans. Still very yummy!

Did I mention that I also baked the Apricot Pecan batter in four mini-loaves? So cute and perfect for the meeting where I was serving them! The only difficult thing about these is remembering to set out the butter and cream cheese to allow them to come to room temperature and then to let the loaves cool before slicing. They smell so good that it is cruel to have to wait, but they need the time to be firm enough to slice. Give this a try with apricots and pecans, or go with the original combo of dates and walnuts. Both are sure to put a smile on your face.

Apricot Pecan Loaf
a variation of a recipe in Dorie Greenspan's marvelous Baking: From my home to yours

2 cups all-purpose flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 sticks (8 oz.) unsalted butter, at room temperature
3 oz. cream cheese, at room temperature
3/4 cup (packed) light brown sugar
4 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1 cup dried apricots, diced and dusted with a bit of flour
1 cup coarsely chopped pecans

Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 325 degrees F. Butter a 9 x 5-inch loaf pan, dust the inside with flour and tap out the excess. Put the pan on an insulated baking sheet or two regular sheets stacked on on top of the other.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder and salt.

Working with a stand mixer and paddle attachment, beat the butter and cream cheese on medium speed until very smooth, about 2 minutes.You can do the same thing using a hand mixer and a large bowl.

Add the sugar and beat until the mixture is light and fluffy, another 3 minutes or so. Add the eggs one at a time, beating for 1 minute after each addition, then beat in the vanilla. The batter may look curdled (mine did), but don't worry, it will come together after you add the flour mixture.

Reduce the mixer speed to low and mix in the flour mixture, mixing only until they are incorporated. Using a rubber spatula, fold in the apricots and pecans. (This step is important. Folding in the fruit and nuts makes for a lighter loaf than adding them with the mixer would.) Turn the batter into the pan.

Bake for 40 minutes. Cover the top of the loaf loosely with a foil tent and bake for another 40 minutes or so (total baking time about 1 hour, 20 minutes), until the top is honey brown, bumpy and cracked and a thin knife inserted into the center of the loaf comes out clean. (Since I used the four small pans, it took about 40 minutes total.) Transfer the pan to a rack and cool about 10 minutes before turning the loaf out of the pan, then cool to room temperature right side up on the rack.

Orphan Bread

You probably know someone who is a vegan. We used to call them vegetarians, but then vegetarians divided up that world and some were ovo-lacto vegetarians, meaning they could have eggs and milk, some were non-meat eating vegetarians, so they could have fish, too, and then the strict vegetarians who don't consume meat, poultry, fish, eggs or milk decided to call themselves vegans to make sure that it was clear.

There is a lot to be said for eating that way, but it is not an easy diet. The same is true for Paleo eaters, although they can't eat half (or more) of what vegans eat and they do tend to eat a lot of meat. If you find that either works for you, then go for it. If you are Paleo, this bread probably isn't for you.

I recently spoke with my older sister and she is a vegan. Her description of how to know if something is OK to eat is it can't have a mother. I doubt that it can have a father, either. This bread qualifies, so I'm calling it Orphan Bread.

This bread is based on a recipe from Soups and Breads - The Irish Kitchen by Nuala Cullen, but I increased the Irish whole meal flour and decreased the bread flour for added texture, flavor and fiber, plus I took out the walnuts and put in pecans. For one thing, the walnuts tend to tint the bread pink. Pecans don't do that and are delicious, too. The apricots are the same and they go really well with pecans.

To keep it an orphan bread, the milk was replaced with almond milk. It is a really wonderful, full flavored bread and lovely toasted. In keeping with the vegan theme, don't use butter on the toast, but top it instead with a nut butter or apricot jam...or both. I admit it, I added a bit of butter to the toasted piece, but then one feels so sorry for an orphan.

Apricot and Pecan Orphan Bread
Based on a recipe in the cook book Soups and Breads - The Irish Kitchen by Nuala Cullen
Makes one loaf

75 g finely chopped dried apricots
75 g roughly chopped pecans
405 g strong white flour (bread flour)
120 g coarse brown flour (I used King Arthur Irish Whole Meal)
one packet instant dried yeast
325 ml/12 fl oz/1 ½ cups liquid with 2/3 water and 1/3 almond milk
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
2 tablespoons almond milk
additional 1 tablespoon finely chopped pecans for topping

In a large mixing bowl mix together the flours, apricots, nuts, and salt.

In the bowl of a stand mixer combine the yeast and water or water mixture and let stand 10 minutes for the yeast to 'bloom'. Add the olive oil and stir.

With dough hook in place and mixer on low speed, gradually add the dry mixture until the dough is soft and cleans the sides of the bowl. Knead with the machine for 3-4 minutes.

Turn dough out onto a floured surface. Knead 2-3 minutes until dough is satiny.

Oil the mixing bowl, put in the dough, turn to coat with oil, cover with plastic wrap/clingfilm and allow to rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.

Knock the air out of the dough and knead briefly before turning out onto a floured surface. Shape as desired. I did a three strand braid. Cover and let rise until doubled in bulk.

Brush some almond milk over the risen loaf and sprinkle with 1 tablespoon chopped pecans.

Bake in a preheated 375 degree F oven for about 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and tap underneath. If a hollow sound results, the bread is cooked. If not, bake a little longer and test again. You could also shape the dough in two loaves and bake them in two 8 x 4 loaf pans.

This is the kind of bread recipe that you can play around with, substituting different dry fruits for the apricots, different nuts for the pecans. Have fun with it!

Apricots for Sweetie

It can't be Sunday evening, a full week after St. Patrick's Day! Where has the time gone? For about a week before that day and for a day after, we seemed to be on that pendulum upswing where there was lots of social stuff going on, then the pendulum swung more towards things that needed to be done. Probably some of that was due to not handling the usual while we were being so social? Anyway with more kitchen planning and visiting places that sell appliances and cabinets, with taxes and scholarship group and fire department stuff and graphic design, the usual errands and chores, getting seedlings re-planted into little peat pots (which makes them 'starts'!, the dance card has been full for every dance and then some.

So today's post is for the scones with apricots that Sweetie requested for his birthday, even though that was days ago. I served them still warm, with a nice bowl of mixed fruits and hot coffee...no butter needed. They are barely sweet, except for when you bite into one of the apricot pieces, a bit on the rich side, and fragrant with apricot and almond aromas. As with many quick breads, these benefit from being barely handled. At first there wasn't enough liquid, so I added a bit more, then it seemed like the dough was too sticky. I so rarely make scones anymore that I thought I'd lost my touch and was sure they would be dense. I sort of flattened out the sticky dough on the silicon mat into a rectangle, then used a knife with flour on the blade to cut them into rough squares. I scooted the squares away from each other and slid the mat onto a baking sheet. You could do the same thing using baking parchment - when the dough is sticky it is nice to shape and bake the scones on the same surface.

I love the bits of apricot showing, too. Sweetie was a happy birthday boy when these were served!

These would make a nice bread for Easter, too. If you threw in some dried cranberries as well, it would look and taste even more festive.

Apricot Scones

2 cups all-purpose flour
½ cup almond meal (almond flour - I use Bob's Red Mill) 
½ cup white whole wheat flour or regular whole wheat flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon baking soda
¼ teaspoons salt
2 tablespoons sugar
4 oz (1/2 stick) very cold butter cut into small pieces
1 egg
½ cup light cream
¼ cup buttermilk
¼ teaspoon almond extract
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
1 cup moist dried apricots, diced finely

With a fork stir together the flour, almond meal, white whole wheat flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and sugar in a large mixing bowl. Stir in the diced butter, then, using clean fingers, rub the butter and flour together until the texture of bread crumbs. Work quickly to keep the butter cold. You can also use a pastry blender to cut in the butter.

In a large measuring cup, use the fork to stir the eggs to beat them lightly, then add the light cream, buttermilk, and almond extract and stir to mix well.

Make a well in the center of the dry ingredients and gradually add the liquid ingredient mixture, mixing lightly with the fork, just until ingredients are barely combined. Do not over mix. If mixture seems to dry, add a few drops of milk; if too wet, add a tablespoon of flour. Finished mixture should be the consistency of moist biscuit dough.

Take a tablespoon of flour and use it to dust the diced apricots, working to have all sides lightly coated with flour.

Again using the fork, gently stir the apricots into the dough, just enough to disperse them.

Turn dough out onto a baking parchment lined surface (or a Silpat mat). Pat dough out to about a 1 inch thickness. Cut with floured scone or biscuit cutter, or with the rim of a drinking glass. Gather scrapes and pat them down, then cut some more scones until dough is used up. If dough is too sticky, pat into a rectangle or circle and cut with a lightly floured knife edge, then use the knife blade to  move the cut pieces apart. Slide the parchment paper onto a baking sheet. You could also use a Silpat mat, like I did. Just be careful when cutting so as to not cut the mat.
Bake in a preheated 425 degree oven for about 10 – 15 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool slightly in pan, then serve warm.

Babes December Tray Bake

When you read British food blogs, I think they refer to today's recipe as a tray bake...a treat baked in a rectangular pan (or even a square one) and served as slices or slabs. It doesn't sound all that appealing, but tray bakes are usually my favorite dessert recipes. In Germany they are kuchen. The Bread Baking Babes are gathering around the table of our December Kitchen of the Month, Gretchen of Provecho Peru, to make Apple Kuchen.

The holiday run-up is in full swing! Worked on the annual Christmas letter, but made sure to keep it to one page, including photos. Took in a holiday party or two, visits with friends where I admired their superior Christmas decorating skills. We do have our tree decorated and a wreath on the door and one string of lights up the banister but I am in awe of friends who do little groupings of trees or Santas or snowmen and make them look just right, something I don't feel I know how to do very well.


One thing I do know how to do is bake, especially breads and cakes. On Saturday I pretended I was in Gretchen's kitchen baking kuchen with her. The recipe she gave is for an apple kuchen with a yeasted dough on the bottom of the pan and an apple topping (although I used apricots as you can see below) with a yummy, rich crumble on top.

Gretchen gave us a description of the different kuchens:

"Kuchen is said to be the German word for cake. Maybe someone more German than I can confirm that? There are several “types” of kuchen that can be prepared:

Rolled - filled dough in a long spiral, baked & sliced to serve
Custard - thick cake-y crust with sweet custard filling
Cheesecake - yeasted crust with fruit and a cream cheese filling
Coffeecake - cinnamon sugar streaks in a butter cake
Pie - thick cake-y crust with apple-pie filling and sweet white icing

We are making something (that I think) is closest to the 'Pie Kuchen'."

I'm convinced that nothing succeeds like excess, so I changed a few things (as I often do) to make the treat even more luxurious. I used white whole wheat flour, browned the butter, then added the sugar and did a bit of stirring to let the sugar begin to dissolve. I also added a tiny bit of almond extract to the liquid mixture. I love nutmeg, so added some to both the dry mixture and to the crumble. On Gretchen's suggestion I doubled the crumble mixture but, because I decided to go all-out on the almond flavors, I used 1/2 cup almond flour and 1/2 cup flour. Still being excessive, I added thin sliced almonds to the bottom and sides of the pan after greasing it. They toasted while the kuchen baked and added a nice crunch to each bite. Last, but not least, I substituted canned apricots for the apples. I've always loved almonds and apricots together.

This was a wonderful, flavorful, almost extravagant kuchen! I skipped any creamy topping because with all that crumble it was rich enough 'plain'.

The dough was easy to work with, although I did used 2 1/2 cups flour to make the dough stiff. Mine didn't rise a lot but that was probably due to the house being cold and damp. We had a raw day Saturday. Of course that made this treat all the more welcome. It was great with a cup of coffee for an afternoon snack.

Thank you Gretchen for choosing such a great December recipe! Do check out the other Bread Baking Babes sites for their take on this festive treat.

I'm sending this over to Susan at Wild Yeast for her Yeastspotting event. I've been remiss in not joining that round up lately, but I recommend it to you as a marvelous place to be inspired to bake with yeast! Lots of great recipes every week.

The recipe can be found at Gretchen's blog, HERE.

Happy kuchen baking!

Apricots and Pork...Who Knew?

Living as I do with a 'meat and potatoes' kinda guy, I have a lot of standard recipes that I know he likes. Most of these have been posted over time on this blog and they can be found in the Index (see the Sidebar).


In general Sweetie is not fond of meat dishes that use sweet ingredients but today he was the one who suggested baking pork chops along with apricot ale. Now apricot ale isn't really sweet, but there are fruity overtones of apricot and it's faintly sweeter than some ale. The one we like is brewed by Pyramid.


Once Sweetie suggested the apricot ale I jumped in with a spur of the moment collection of other ingredients: brown rice, mushrooms, onions, parsley, sage, even nutmeg...and dried apricots of course.


This is a savory dish with little bursts of sweet from the dried apricots. It's very easy to do and made enough for two dinners for two or plenty for four at one meal. I served it with a nice green salad for some crunch since the pork dish is savory but soft. Who knew that pork and apricot together would yield such a nice dinner? Now we have a meal already cooked for Friday.


A little update on health: My knee is doing much better (and THANK YOU to all for the good wishes) but the doc said yesterday to expect another couple of weeks before walking downstairs would be comfortable. I was actually talking to the doc because I had to drive Sweetie in to be checked out for a fall from a wooden ladder. He is fine (although pretty sore) but the ladder isn't. I'd rather have it that way than the other way around. It is sort of comical. He can walk fine but it hurts of do much bending over and I can bend over fine but it hurts to walk much so both together equals about one healthy person. Good thing we have each other!

Pork and Apricot Bake

4 thick cut pork chops
garlic salt or salt and pepper to taste
1/8 teaspoon ground sage
1/8 teaspoon freshly ground (if possible) nutmeg
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 yellow onion, peeled and chopped
1 cup sliced mushrooms
1/2 cup water
4 cups already cooked brown rice
1 bottle (12 oz) apricot ale
1/2 cup dried apricots (halves or chopped)
2 tablespoons chopped Italian parsley

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. Cook in an oven safe skillet with a lid or transfer ingredients to a large casserole with a lid when it's time to bake.

Season the pork chops with the salt or garlic salt, pepper, sage and nutmeg. Season both sides if that is important to you. I generally go with seasonings on one side, so you may need to increase the sage and nutmeg amounts if you season both sides.

In large skillet, over high heat, heat the olive oil and brown the seasoned chops. Turn and brown the other side, then remove from the pan and keep warm. Add the chopped onion to the pan and stir continuously for 2 minutes, then add the mushrooms and stir every 10 seconds for 2 minutes.

Turn down the heat to low and add the water. Use a wooden spoon to scrape up the browned bits from the bottom of the pan and stir the mixture. Add the rice and stir to combine completely. If using the same skillet, smooth out the rice mixture. If using a different ovenproof baker, transfer the rice mixture to that baker and smooth it out.

Place the browned pork chops evenly around the baking dish. Scatter the apricots over the rice around the pork chops. Pour on all of the ale. Sprinkle Italian parsley over all. Cover and bake covered for 1 hour. Remove cover and bake another 5 minutes. Serve hot.

Inspired by Apricot Beer - Soft Cheese Bread

You never know when inspiration will strike. I was avidly reading through Peter Reinhart’s book Artisan Breads Every Day a short while ago and noticed a recipe that called for beer in the bread. The day before Sweetie had me try a new beer he had found that had a strong apricot flavor. It was delicious! As soon as I saw that this bread recipe used both beer and cheese I decided to bake it using the apricot beer, diced dried apricots and brie cheese.

The brie seemed like a good choice because it goes well with fruit like apricots and it would get nice and melty in the bread, too. I always did like the challenge of making changes to a new recipe that I had never tried in its original version.

To make the challenge even greater, I decided to use some of my sourdough starter instead of the instant yeast in the recipe. I left out the diced onion or chives called for, but included the brown sugar and buttermilk. Because it has been over a week since I made the bread and I forgot to write down the proportions, I’m going to give the recipe as written for using instant yeast, but include the apricot beer and apricots and brie. Although the recipe gives amounts in a number of different measurements, I weighed mine…it is so nice having a good scale at last! Thanks go to my generous daughter who gave it to me for Christmas.

This book has a wonderful, illustrated section at the beginning that gives a nice primer on mixing, kneading, and shaping bread, with lots of explanations. One of the distinctions that Peter makes in this book is between sticky and tacky dough. His description for tacky is that the dough sticks to the surface of a dry finger but then peels off easily, like a Post-it note. That was what I was going for and eventually reached. I also did the stretch and fold that he suggested, giving my bench scraper a workout at first. Once the gluten developed enough I could use my hands. It was fun. The apricot dice was kneaded in at the end, before the first rising. The diced Brie cheese was carefully kneaded in right before I shaped the loaf into a sort of football shape.

During the baking some of the cheese near the surface melted and bubbled up and then cooked to a crispy bubbly blister.

This may not be the most elegant looking bread, but it was delicious.

This bread was very different than the Irish Apricot and Walnut bread, even though they both had apricots. This bread was softer, with a finer crumb, and it had a malty flavor due to the beer.

I really liked it when it was warm and the cheese was soft. It didn’t need any butter…or anything added. Great bread! I'm sending this over to Susan at Wild Yeast for her Yeastspotting event...the best event ever for those who bake with yeast both wild and not.

Soft Cheese Bread with Apricots and Brie
Makes 2 large loaves

6 ¼ cups (28 oz/794 g) unbleached bread flour
2 teaspoons (0.5 oz/14 g) salt, or 1 tablespoon coarse kosher salt
5 tablespoons (2.25 oz/64 g) brown sugar
1 cup (8 oz/227 g) lukewarm apricot beer (I used Pyramid Breweries Audacious Apricot Ale [an unfiltered wheat ale], but you could use your favorite beer or ale)
1 cup plus tablespoons (9 ox/255 g) lukewarm buttermilk (about 95 degrees F or 35 degrees C)
1 ½ tablespoons (o.5 oz/14 g) instant yeast
¼ cup (2 oz/56.5 g) melted unsalted butter or vegetable oil (I used butter)
1 cup (8 oz) (sorry, no other measurements for this ingredient) finely diced dried apricots
1 ½ cups (12 oz/340 g) diced Brie cheese. I removed some of the Brie rind for a mellower taste.

In a mixing bowl, whisk the flour, slat, and sugar together. Separately, combine the beer and buttermilk, whisk in the yeast until dissolved, then pour the mixture and the melted butter into the dry ingredients. If using a mixer, use the paddle attachment and mix on the lowest speed for 2 minutes. If mixing by hand, use a large spoon and stir for about 2 minutes. Let the dough rest for 5 minutes.

Switch to the dough hook and mix on medium-low speed, or continue mixing by hand for 3 minutes, adjusting with flour or water as needed. The dough should be soft, supple and tacky but not sticky. Add the diced apricots and mix on the lowest speed or continue mixing by hand for 1 minute, until the fruit is evenly distributed.

Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface and knead for 1 or 2 minutes to make any final adjustments, then form the dough into a ball. (This is where I used the bench scraper and did the stretch and fold. Perhaps I had not added enough flour, but I was going for a hydrated dough and the combination of bench scraper and stretch and fold did the job.)

Place the dough in a clean, lightly oiled bowl, cover the bowl with plastic wrap and refrigerate overnight or for up to 4 days.

When ready to have a baking day, remove the dough from the fridge about 2 hours before you plan to bake. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured work surface and divide it into 2 equal pieces. Each will weigh about 2 pounds (907 g). Dust each piece with flour, then use a rolling pin (I used my hands to flatten dough) to flatten dough a bit. Put about ¼ of the cheese on each piece of dough, then knead it in. Flatten again and divide remaining cheese between the two pieces of dough. Knead the cheese dice in until evenly distributed. If making a boule, draw the dough toward the back of a ball to create a skin all around the ball. If some cheese pops out, that’s OK. (I shaped mine into a football shape once it was in the boule shape.) Proof the loaves on a sheet pan lined with parchment paper or a silicone mat. Since these are large loaves, you may want to use one pan per loaf. Mist the shaped dough with spray oil and cover loosely with plastic wrap, then let the dough rise at room temperature for about 90 minutes, until increased to about 1 ½ times its original size.

About 15 minutes before baking, preheat the oven to 350 degrees F ( 177 C). Because of the cheese, there may be air pockets or tunnels in the risen dough that could cause it to separate. Poke through the top crust in a few spots with a skewer or toothpick. The dough may fall a bit, but will recover in the oven.

Bake loaves for 20 minutes, then rotate the pans. The total baking time is about 50 minutes. The bread is done when it’s a deep golden brown and the internal temperature is above 185 degrees F (85 egrees C) in the center.

Remove from the pans and cool on a wire rack for about 45 minutes to an hour before slicing or serving. (Since I’m married to Sweetie who can't seem to wait for the bread to cool, the bread was sliced by him after about 30 minutes…not great for the bread texture, but yum for the melted cheese.)

Perhaps the Best Yet...Irish Apricot and Walnut Sourdough Braid

What do you do that makes you happy? This is a question that comes up early on in a book I just read. The School of Essential Ingredients by Erica Bauermeister. It is set in a cooking school and has wonderful characters and a lyrical use of language. It’s a fairly short book but, at least for me, had quite a few places that got me thinking about myself and my own life, even though the lives of most of the characters were quite different from mine.

What do you do that makes you happy? As a small child it was making pretend cakes in the sandbox and decorating them with leaves, twigs and flowers. At the beach my sand castles would be decorated, too, with shells and bark and perhaps a scrap paper flag on a coffee stirrer if I found those on the beach. I guess I like being creative and making things and embellishing them.

When I was older I loved to make my own paperdoll clothes and to bake cookies, and, later, real cakes with Hershey cocoa icing. More creativity, but more useful than sand.

When I was at school one of the things that made me happy was a day trip with a canoe on top of the car and friends to be with who also liked to travel down swollen creeks in the spring and lazy rivers in the summer, aiming our canoes through the rapids for a brief funhouse ride. Maybe I have a wild side!

Being in the kitchen when I can be creative almost always makes me happy. Sharing the results with Sweetie and others who love good food makes me happiest of all. The creation of food, raw, cooked, baked, and grilled, brings out the artist in me and there is something truly magical about creating food items specifically for those you love…some of your love seems to seep into the food as you prepare it…and they feel that when they eat it.

Drawing together to share food, a process as ancient as any, is an elemental and satisfying way to connect with those we love. If the TV is off it is an opportunity for conversation, sharing of daily trials and accomplishments, subtle instruction…and not so subtle sometimes…of the youngsters, appreciation for our blessings and, sometimes, a bit of flirting, too. If you can, try to sit down to eat with your loved one(s) at least once a day with no distractions other than the food. It is one secret to keeping the love and connections alive…and it just might be something you do to make yourself happy.

When I was in high school I was lucky enough to take a sculpture class taught at a nationally renowned museum in Washington DC. We worked with clay and I found the medium to be absolutely wonderful! Clay lets you be godlike, molding and pushing it around to suit yourself.

Recently Sweetie asked me why I don’t work in clay now since I liked it so much. My answer was “Now I have bread dough.” Bread dough is even more fun because it is alive with yeast. That means that you have to cooperate with the dough more than you do with clay…clay is much more submissive…but when you are done you can eat the bread and make another ‘sculpture’ another time!

This braid is truly a delectable bread sculpture...fun to make and fun to eat. As long as you remember that walnuts can give the dough a red tone you can enjoy the flavor they add. Chopped dried apricots give nuggets of intense apricot flavor here and there as you eat the slices.

Sweetie thinks that this might be the best bread yet. Not sure about that but I know it makes the best toast!

The recipe is from a book I bought last spring in Ireland and then somehow left in with the travel books. When it came to light this week I was thrilled to find that it had this bread because I'd been wanting to make a bread with apricots in it. The cook book is called Soups and Breads - The Irish Kitchen by Nuala Cullen. There are wonderful soup recipes in the front and lots of bread recipes in the back. Here and there are charming line drawings, but no photos.

This was written as a recipe for a boule, but I felt like playing with dough and making a braid. Since I used my sourdough starter instead of dried active yeast, the liquid measurements were wrong at first, so I added extra milk...but didn't measure. Add additional milk/water and flour as needed to get a firm dough that is smooth and only barely tacky. Allow plenty of time for rising if you use starter.If you braid the strands loosely you can get a really pretty braid once it rises.

With packaged yeast the first rise should be about an hour and the second, after braiding, about a half hour. Do make this with active dry yeast if you don't have starter...it is really good and worth your time. I'm sending it over to Susan of Wild Yeast for the weekly Yeastspotting event.

Irish Apricot and Walnut Bread
Makes one loaf

75 g/3 oz/2/3 cup finely chopped dried apricots
75 g/3 oz/3/4 cup roughly chopped walnuts
450 g/1 lb/4 cups strong white flour
75 g/3 oz/3/4 cup coarse brown flour (I used whole wheat)
1 tablespoon or one sachet instant dried yeast (I used 1 cup sourdough starter and adjusted the milk/water)
325 ml/12 fl oz/1 ½ cups mixed milk and water
1 tablespoon olive oil (I forgot to put this in, but it turned out fine)
1 teaspoon salt

If using dry yeast: In a large mixing bowl mix together the flours, apricots, nuts, salt and dried yeast.

Make a well in the center and pour in the milk and water, kneading and drawing in the flour from the sides until it is all incorporated. Knead for 2 minutes with a dough hook or 5-6 minutes by hand on a floured surface. Oil the mixing bowl, put in the dough, cover with plastic wrap/clingfilm and allow to rise until doubled in bulk, about 1 hour.

If using sourdough starter: In large mixing bowl (I used stand mixer bowl) put the sourdough starter and 1 ¼ cups mixed milk and water, slightly warmed. Stir or whisk to combine.

In another large bowl combine the flours, apricots, and walnuts. With dough hook in place and mixer on low speed, gradually add the dry mixture until the dough is soft and cleans the sides of the bowl. Knead with the machine for 3-4 minutes. If you prefer you can combine the wet and dry ingredients as described in the first paragraph and hand knead. With sourdough starter you might need to have a longer rising time...I did.

Knock the air out of the dough and knead briefly before turning out onto a floured surface. Shape as desired. I did a three strand braid. Cover and let rise until doubled in bulk. Again, this usually takes longer when you are only using sourdough starter, but the additional flavor that develops is well worth the wait. I also refrigerated my dough overnight before the first rise...even more flavor that way!

Bake in a preheated 375 degree F oven for about 30 minutes. Remove from the oven and tap underneath. If a hollow sound results, the bread is cooked. If not, bake a little longer and test again. You could also shape the dough in two loaves and bake this in two 8 x 4 loaf pans.

Do try some of this toasted...it is sublime.