Summer Berry Crumble

This is based on the apple crumble i made in the past, but since berries are so sweet and delicious (and i forgot to buy apples) i doubled up on the berries and used all strawberries and blueberries.  I also used whole wheat flour instead of regular white flour, and demerara instead of brown sugar... my attempt to make it a bit healthier in a natural way.  And then i decided to get creative and made an individual serving in a small dish.  This might be fun to do with a small dinner party.  Now the question... is this crumble as good as the last? 
 

Ingredients -

• 1 cup of demerara or brown sugar
• 1 cup of rolled oats
• 1 cup of whole wheat pastry flour
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
• 6 fuji apples, peeled and sliced
• 1 large basket of blueberries
• 1 2 large baskets of strawberries
• 1/2 cup of white sugar
• 2 teaspoons of cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350°F.

In a medium bowl, combine the brown sugar, oats, flour and melted butter and mix until crumbly. 

Place half the mixture in a baking dish.

Spread apples and berries over mixture.
Sprinkle with white sugar and cinnamon.
Top with remaining crumb mixture.
Bake 40-45 Minutes or until golden brown.

Serve with vanilla schlag (whipped cream) or vanilla ice cream.  In fact, a little of both is great!

Berry crumble for one... or be nice and share it with someone for a smile.

By the way, this posting is after i served the berry crumble, and this was a hit!  It was completely devoured as was the schlag.  I'm a happy blogger.  :)

Buon appetito!

An apple crumble a day...

 

I really enjoy making desserts with apples this time of year.  I think it starts with Rosh Hashanah and i stick with apples for a while.  Especially since i found a "keeper".

Beth and I were talking about our Rosh Hashanah dishes, and we both mentioned that we do an apple crumble (or maybe she calls hers an apple crisp).  She told me hers is a super easy apple crumble that her sister-in-law made and everyone loved.  I thought the apple crumble i made for Rosh Hashanah was good, but apparently there was room for improvement.  I then decided to make Beth's/Andrea's apple crumble for break fast, and i practically got a standing ovation.  Debbie said this latest one was definitely much better than the earlier one, and Enrico devoured two plates full.  So now we're all making Andrea's super easy apple crumble, and this is definitely a keeper.

This afternoon at lunch, Karen mentioned that she wants this recipe, and I realized i never blogged about this delicious crumble since i had forgotten to take pictures of it.  When i went into the market today the Fuji apples were staring at me so i decided to buy a few apples to add to the ones i have at home and make this "keeper" to bring to my office.  I'm hoping it comes out as good as the last one because i realized while making it that i have one big problem -- no oats.  Instead of going back to the market, i decided i could use a cereal i have that i use in my morning yogurt.  It's Nature's Path Organic Pumpkin Flax Plus Granola.  I was confident this would work.  The question is: will it be as good as using regular oats?  We'll find out tomorrow.  (Debbie, Karen, Elliot, i hope you'll post your honest opinion of this crumble.)

Oops... one more ingredient i didn't have was brown sugar.  I opted to use three-fourths demerara (partially refined cane sugar, as opposed to regular brown sugar which is fully refined with molasses) and one-fourth muscovado (unrefined natural cane sugar with a natural flavor of molasses).  I guess i should have some regular brown sugar sitting around, just in case.

Now that i've finished cooking this dish, my only question is, why did this dish come out with much more liquid than the last two?  Perhaps we should pat the apples dry before adding them to the baking dish.  (I keep the sliced apples in an acidulous bath until i've finished peeling and slicing all of them.  Perhaps they take on too much water.)

 Mixing oats, flour, sugar...

... and now i've added the melted butter.

Ingredients -

• 1 cup of brown sugar
• 1 cup of rolled oats
• 1 cup of flour
• 1/2 cup (1 stick) butter, melted
• 7 apples, peeled and sliced
• a few hand fulls of berries (I used raspberries, but Beth's recipe called for blueberries)
• 1/2 cup of white sugar
• 2 teaspoons of cinnamon

Preheat oven to 350°F.

In a medium bowl, combine the brown sugar, oats, flour and melted butter and mix until crumbly. 

Place half the mixture in a baking dish.

Spread apples and berries over mixture.
Sprinkle with white sugar & cinnamon.
Top with remaining crumb mixture.
Bake 40-45 Minutes until golden brown.

Ready to pop in the oven.

Serve  warm, and enjoy with fresh whipped cream or vanilla ice cream!

 

APPLE OATMEAL CRISP not quite sweet enough for Rosh Hashanah

A good apple crumble... just a bit too tart to start off the new year.

Monday i was thinking about Rosh Hashanah and decided it would be nice to make something a little different (or "different" insofar as the holidays are concerned).  I've already offered to bring a round challah,  so now i want to think of a sweet apple dish.  Well, i guess i wasn't in the mood to think too hard.  I found what looked like a simple recipe for an apple crisp.  This recipe came from the Cafe Beaujolais cookbook which I've had for over 20 years and can tell you it's provided me with some wonderful dishes and stories that i will never forget to go along with those dishes.  This recipe (and probably most recipes that call for apple slices) called for soaking the apple slices in lemon juice.  I get the idea of not wanting the apples to oxidize so you keep them in an acidulous bath, but... Rosh Hashanah is supposed to be sweet, sweet, sweet.  No tart.  No sour.  We want to start the year out on the sweetest note possible.  So why did i use the lemon?  In fact, i also used granny smith apples which tend to be tart.  Next round i'm using golden delicious (sorry, Rosa.  I'm aiming for sweet on the second version).  I made the apple crumble (which smelled delicious as it was cooking) and brought it to my office on Tuesday.  The RPD taste testers seemed to like the dish, although some commented on how tart it was.  In fact, my sister said it reminded her of a lemon meringue pie.  Not a good sign, especially for Rosh Hashanah. 

Apples bathing in lemon juice and zest.  Bound to be more tart than sweet.
What was i thinking?!?!

 I decided that the second apple crisp would be made with apple juice, honey and a splash of lemon juice, and i would try golden delicious apples.  Yes, the honey and golden delicious apples should make a tremendous difference, and hopefully this dish will be perfect for the holiday! 

Although the pictures in this posting are from the tart apple crumble made on Monday (with the lemon juice and lemon zest), as i write this post i'm in the process of baking a new, revised crumble using the apple juice/honey/splash of lemon juice mixture along with golden delicious apples.  I'll have to post tomorrow after our Rosh Hashanah lunch to let you know the consensus.  I have a feeling this one will be a lot less tart.

Assembled and ready to bake

Fresh out of the oven and smelling delicious!

Recipe is adapted from Margaret Fox's Cafe Beaujolais, Mendocino, California

When i refer to "my first crumble", it's the tart version; "the second version" is the one i'm hoping turns out much sweeter.

Ingredients -

• 6 firm apples, peeled, cored and cut in 1/4-inch slices (my first crumble i used granny smith; the second one i used golden delicious) 
• juice of 1 lemon
• zest of 1 lemon (i omitted the zest on the second version)
• 1/4 cup of apple juice
• 1/4 cup of honey (this became an afterthought that i used in the second version only)
• 1 teaspoon of cinammon
• 1/2 teaspoon of fresh ground ginger
• 3/4 cup of flour
• 3/4 cup of light brown sugar (I used 3/4 cup of demerara plus 1/4 cup of golden brown sugar for a little extra sweetness)
• 1/2 cup of regular oats
• 1/4 cup of slivered almonds
• 1/2 cup of unsalted butter
• optional toppings:  vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, or vanilla custard sauce

Mix together the apple slices, lemon juice, lemon rind and apple juice (or brandy, water or Calvados).  Place in a buttered 9-inch round cake pan.
Using an electric mixer at slow speed, blend the sugar, butter, flour, oats, cinnamon, nutmeg and ginger until crumbly.  
Mix in the slivered almonds.
Scatter evenly on top of apples.
Bake at 350°F. for 1 hour.
Serve warm.

And enjoy this dessert knowing i send you best wishes for a new year filled with an abundance of health, happiness and peace.

Thick & Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cranberry Cookies

This post is actually coming from Auntie Lollie's soul since anyone that knows Lori knows she never cooks on weeknights, let alone baking for the office.

I've often thought of oatmeal cookies as boring but can "hit the spot",  just as a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a shortbread cookie is acceptable at times.  But today, after lunch, the guys and I stopped into Border's for our afternoon dopio and they happened to have samples of their cranberry raising oatmeal cookie.  Kevin was our "Mikey" and gave it a try and was surprisingly impressed.  So i decided to brave the world of coffee house samples and i, too, thought it was great.  So i'm now determined to find a delicious oatmeal cookie.  I checked some of my fellow bloggers and decided that Smitten Kitchen had what sounded like the best -- the Thick, Chewy Oatmeal Raisin Cookies with a little tweaking by Auntie Lollie.  My modifications were:

• i used natural demerara instead of brown sugar.  Demerara is a natural, unrefined cane sugar so it's coarser that regular brown sugar and provides more texture.  Also, because it's unrefined you can taste the molasses.
• i like to make sure the butter and eggs are closer to room temperature.  I keep the egg out as long as it takes the butter to soften.
• i figured no need to stop with raisins.  I LOVE golden raisins and happened to have just enough that i bought at the farmer's market last week.  I also decided to add dried cranberries.  
• i'm thinking that adding some chopped up semi-sweet chocolate pieces could also be a nice touch.  

Light Demerara (natural cane sugar)

Chewy little nuggets with golden raisins and cranberries.

Because i have now made them, i think i should have used more sugar, or perhaps the demerara isn't as sweet as regular brown sugar.  I like them, but they're not as sweet as the coffee house cookie i had yesterday.  Also, they didn't puff up as much as i would have thought.  They're thick, but they're a small cookie.  I did use a small scooper.  I'll let the judges at my office decide if there are any issues with this cookie.  One piece of advice that Smitten Kitchen gives is the importance in chilling the dough before baking the cookies in order to get a really thick, chewy cookie.  So, while writing the post my dough is chillin' in the fridge.  She doesn't say how long to chill, so i'll play it by ear.  Ok, i've decided it will chill overnight.

1/2 cup (1 stick or 4 ounces) butter, softened
2/3 cup light brown sugar, packed (i used natural demerara)
1 egg (i suggest room temperature)
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt (i used a dash more because i like a little more salt in my baked goods)
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
3/4 cup raisins (i used 1/2 golden raisins and 1/2 dried cranberries)
1/2 cup walnuts, chopped (optional)

Preheat oven to 350° F.

In a large bowl, cream together the butter, brown sugar, egg and vanilla until smooth.
In a separate bowl, whisk the flour, baking soda, cinnamon and salt together.
Stir this into the butter/sugar mixture.  Stir in the oats, raisins, cranberries, and walnuts, if using them.

At this point you can either chill the dough for a bit in the fridge and then scoop it, or scoop the cookies onto a sheet and then chill the whole tray before baking them.  I opted for the former.  You could also bake them right away if you're impatient, but Smitten Kitchen suggests chilling them for the extra thick cookie.

Place the cookies two inches apart on a parchment-lined baking sheet.  Bake for 10 to 12 minutes, taking them out when golden at the edges but still a little undercooked-looking on top.  Let them sit on the hot baking sheet for five minutes before transferring them to a rack to cool.

Hopefully I (or someone from my office) will post reactions.