I love the touch of savory with dessert trend that has been popular for the past year or so.  Salted caramel or chocolate anything makes me happy because the salt prevents the rich chocolate and/or caramel from becoming too overwhelming.  There is a pizza restaurant that my husband and I love that has olive oil ice cream with sea salt for dessert and they serve it with warm chocolate chip cookies.  The sweet with the salt is just enough to be dangerously addictive.

One of my other favorite savory additions to dessert is balsamic glazes or reductions.  I particularly enjoy this savory accompaniment with berries.

You can make a simple sauce of balsamic and berries and pour it over ice cream for an effortless, yet decadent dessert.  The fine people at Mandarano sent me their award-winning Balsamic Glaze and I have used it in so many ways.  The Mandarano Balsamic Glaze is so great drizzled over sandwiches, pasta or salmon.  I made a simple caprese panini and this glaze kicked it up a notch and made it taste very gourmet and sophisticated.  It is the perfect condiment because it is made with high quality balsamic vinegar that has already been reduced and is ready to use.

One of the best ways I have used this glaze is to make this Blueberry Balsamic Sauce to top this perfect Lemon Poppyseed Blueberry Bread.  As you make the blueberry balsamic sauce, the balsamic glaze infuses the blueberries so that when you bite into one of them, the subtle rich flavor of balsamic vinegar bursts into your mouth.  It really is the perfect addition to this sweet and tart lemon bread which even on it’s own is so moist and delicious.

mix sugar, oil, lemon zest and lemon juice

mix in buttermilk and eggs

mix in flour, baking powder and salt until well combined

mix in poppyseeds and blueberries

pour into prepared baking pan and bake

for the sauce, combine all ingredients, bring to a boil and reduce

*Mandarano provided me with their balsamic glaze, however, all opinions are, as always, my own.

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There are two desserts that have never been my favorites:  pie and cheesecake.  Go ahead you pie and cheesecake lovers, throw your stones at me, but pie is something I will enjoy a bite of, but a whole piece loses my interest.  With cheesecake, I would love to eat the graham cracker or Oreo crust off of your piece, but as much as I love cream cheese, the cheesecake filling just doesn’t do it for me.  I know that this is a very broad generalization to make and I respect pie and cheesecake as great vehicles for celebrating the fruits of the season or filling du jour.  Take a cherry pie for example.  I just want to spoon out the fresh cherry filling.  I don’t care how buttery and flakey the crust is.

Despite my indifference to pie, my husband requested a pie for the 4th of July and I was more than happy to make one for him.  This pie is particularly special and lovable because it honors summer peaches and blueberries and is topped with a crumbly topping similar to what you would find on a crisp.  Butter, brown sugar and oats, what’s not to love?

I baked this pie on the 4th in the afternoon and it was kind of funny because it was so hot out that day that even though the party we were attending was not until much later, the pie stayed warm well into the evening!  I believe that most sweets taste best warm, so the extreme heat that day was a bonus for the pie, but not for sweaty me.

This pie would be perfect with some vanilla bean ice cream or fresh whipped cream.

combine ingredients for filling and set aside

use a food processor to pulse crumb topping ingredients together and set aside

roll out pie dough, drape over greased pie dish and brush with egg white

pour filling into pie dough

pour crumb topping on top of filling

fold or crimp edges of pie dough over topping

bake, then cool at least 30 minutes before serving with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream

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Every year at this time with the promise of skirts and swimming suits right around the corner, I find myself craving lighter meals.  And since lightening up in my world would never involve giving up dessert (blasphemy!), I look for ways to make my desserts a bit lighter too.

This Berry Crisp that I made last week was healthy enough that I ate it for breakfast with a little bit of nonfat Greek yogurt mixed in.  I eliminated some of the sugar in the berry filling because I personally enjoy the subtle tartness of berries and do not need them to taste overly sweet.  I also replaced some of the flour in the crisp topping with ground almonds to increase the protein and healthy fat.  And my main fat source was coconut oil which made me feel better than loading up on butter.

Now don’t get me wrong, this crisp is obviously less sweet than traditional recipes (i.e. my husband dumped a couple of teaspoons of sugar on his portion), but it is certainly enough to Satisfy My Sweet Tooth after dinner and even give me a breakfast to look forward to.

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Lightened Up Berry Crisp

by Mercedes Porter

Keywords: bake dessert fruit berries crisp summer

6025277

 

Ingredients (8 servings)

For the filling

• 6 cups berries (fresh or frozen, thawed)
• 3 Tbsp sugar
• 1 Tbsp cornstarch

For the crisp topping

• 1/4 cup white whole wheat flour
• 1/2 cup ground almonds
• 1 tsp baking soda
• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 3 Tbsp unrefined coconut oil, melted

Instructions

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Spray 8-inch glass baking dish with nonstick cooking spray.

In a medium bowl, combine berries, 3 Tbsp sugar and cornstarch, stir and set aside.

In another medium bowl combine all ingredients for topping and mix until large clumps form (it works well to do this with your hands).

Pour berry mixture into prepared pan. Top berries with topping mixture and spread evenly to cover berries.

Bake about 35 minutes or until topping is lightly browned.

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combine berries, sugar and cornstarch

combine topping ingredients in another bowl

pour berry mixture into prepared pan

pour topping over berries

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A couple of ingredients that immediately invoke panic in me are yeast and egg yolks.  Not just raw egg yolks, but when you are making a custard or pudding-type dessert, and you have to temper egg yolks.  Yep, it sends a bit of a chill down my spine.  I am so afraid of ending up with scrambled eggs or cooked egg chunks in my dessert.  And who wants scrambled eggs and lemon together?  Not me.

Thankfully my mom was in town last week and she helped my conquer this irrational fear I have of cooking egg yolks.

My mom has made many a curd in her day, so she assured me that I wouldn’t end up with an omelet if I attempted to make lemon curd.  And so with a confidence boost from her, I successfully made my own lemon curd!  Now I am already dreaming up other flavors of curd that I can’t wait to try:  lime, clementine…..

We all can use shortcuts from time to time and pre-formed phyllo cups are one of my favorite tricks.  Already baked and perfectly crispy, the sweet or savory filling possibilities are unlimited for the shells.  By simply filling the shells with lemon curd and topping them with a blueberry, the color and texture contrasts were great and the flavor combination was so fresh and perfect for spring.

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Lemon Curd

by Mercedes Porter

Keywords: dessert spread lemon filling spring

6023300

 

Ingredients (1 1/4 cups curd)

• 1/2 cup fresh lemon juice (from about 3 lemons)
• 3/4 cup sugar
• pinch of salt
• 3 egg yolks
• 2 eggs
• 4 Tbsp (1/4 cup) unsalted butter, frozen and cut into 1/2-inch cubes

Instructions

Place lemon juice, sugar and salt in to a small saucepan. Cook over medium heat stirring constantly until sugar is dissolved. Remove from heat.

In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs and egg yolks. Slowly pour lemon mixture into eggs whisking constantly to temper. Return mixture to saucepan and heat over medium-low heat stirring constantly until mixture is thickened. It is thick enough when you can drag a spatula along the bottom of the pan and it leaves a trail.

Remove from heat and stir in butter until melted and combined.

Pour curd through a fine metal sieve into another bowl.

Press plastic wrap directly against surface of curd and refrigerate at least an hour before serving.

Recipe adapted from The America’s Test Kitchen Family Baking Book

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In my last post I shared some of the reasons that I love brunch.  One of the reasons that I failed to mention was that I have so many recipes in the “Breakfast/Brunch” section of my recipe collection that I am dying to try!  I need excuses like hosting or attending brunches to make these recipes because while I do eat breakfast everyday, it is usually not something quite as indulgent as most of the recipes that I want to try are.

My mother-in-law made these muffins with fresh blueberries and the reason that I loved them so much was because of how cakey they were.  Fresh berries can be more expensive this time of year so I made these with a frozen berry blend of blueberries, raspberries and blackberries and they were just as delicious.  The really special part is the crumby streusel topping which provides a nice crunch and extra sweetness.

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Triple Berry Muffins with Streusel Topping

by Mercedes Porter

Keywords: bake breakfast dessert blueberry fruit raspberry muffin

Ingredients (12 muffins)

• 1 1/2 cups flour, plus 1/3 cup for streusel
• 3/4 cup sugar, plus 1/2 cup for streusel
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 1/3 cup canola oil
• 1 egg
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1 cup berreis (fresh or frozen berries, thawed)
• 1/4 cup butter, cubed
• 1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

Instructions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees and grease or line muffin pan with liners.

In a large bowl, combine 1 1 /2 cup flour, 3/4 cup sugar, salt and baking powder.

Add oil, egg and milk and mix with an electric mixer until well blended.

Fold in blueberries.

To make streusel, in a small bowl, combine 1/2 cup sugar, 1/3 cup flour, butter and cinnamon with a fork.

Fill muffin cups 1/2-2/3 full of batter and sprinkle tops with streusel.

Bake 22-25 minutes or until toothpick inserted into muffin comes out clean.

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combine dry ingredients for muffins

add oil, egg and milk and mix

fold in berries

combine streusel ingredients in a small bowl

fill muffin pan 1/2-2/3 full

sprinkle the streusel over the batter

bake

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