Tag Archives: blueberries

Cherry-Berry-Peach Pie

22 Jul

Cherry berry peach pie (peach-a-berry) by Fiona via FlckrOh boy! It’s that rare time of year when bing cherries, peaches and blueberries are all readily available at reasonable prices — i.e. the perfect time to make a Cherry-Berry-Peach Pie, one of my all-time faves.

I usually use a frozen pie crust, but if you want to make your own, I’ve added a recipe below. And if you’ve never made a lattice-top pie, fear not — it’s not as hard as you might think, and it’s so pretty! Here is a good video that will show you how.

Ingredients:

3 cups sliced, peeled peaches (about 6)
1 cup fresh blueberries
1 cup pitted, halved, fresh sweet cherries
1 Tbs. lemon juice
¼ cup packed light brown sugar
½ cup granulated sugar
3 Tbs. flour
Pinch of salt
¼ tsp. cinnamon
Pastry for a deep-dish, two-crust, 9-inch pie

Directions:

Preheat oven to 450 degrees.

In a large bowl, mix together the peaches, blueberries and cherries. Sprinkle with the lemon juice. Gently stir in the brown sugar, granulated sugar, flour, salt and cinnamon.

Line a 9-inch, deep pie plate with half the pastry; trim overhang to one inch. Turn the fruit into the pie. Roll out the remaining pastry and place over the filling. If you like, make a lattice top: cut the dough  into thee-quarter-inch strips. Arrange the strips over the fruit in a lattice. Fold the top crust or the ends of the lattice strips under the edge of the pastry and flute the edges. If you like, you can brush the top of the pie with milk or apple juice and a add a sprinkle of granulated sugar.

Bake at 450 degrees for 10 minutes. Reduce heat to 350 degrees aand bake 45 to 50 minutes longer, until pastry is brown and fruit is tender.

Serves 6 to 8

Classic Piecrust

(for a double-crust deep-dish pie)

Ingredients:

2 2/3 cups all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup well-chilled vegetable shortening
6 to 10 Tbs. ice-cold water

Directions:

Blend  flour and salt in medium mixing bowl.

Cut  chilled shortening into flour mixture, using a pastry blender, in an up and down chopping motion, until mixture resembles coarse crumbs with some small pea-sized pieces remaining.

Sprinkle 5 Tbs. ice-cold water over the flour mixture. Using a fork, quickly stir, drawing flour from bottom of bowl to the top, distributing moisture evenly into flour. Press chunks down to bottom of bowl with fork. Add more water by the tablespoon, until dough is moist enough to hold together when pressed together.

Tip: Test dough for proper moistness by squeezing a marble-sized ball of dough in your hand. If it holds together firmly, do not add any additional water. If the dough crumbles, add more water by the tablespoonful, until dough is moist enough to form a smooth ball when pressed together.

Divide dough in two balls, one ball slightly larger than the other. Flatten balls into ½-inch thick round disks.

Tip: For ease in rolling, wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill for 30 minutes or up to 2 days.

Roll larger ball of dough from center outward with steady pressure on a lightly floured work surface or between two sheets of wax or parchment paper into a circle 2-inches wider than top of pie plate for the bottom crust. Transfer dough to pie plate by loosely rolling around rolling pin. Center the rolling pin over the pie plate, and then unroll, easing dough into pie plate.

Fill unbaked pie crust according to recipe directions. Roll out smaller dough disk. Transfer dough carefully onto filled pie. Trim edges of dough leaving a 3/4-inch overhang. Fold top edge under bottom crust. Press edges together to seal and flute as desired. Cut slits in top crust or prick with fork to vent steam. Bake according to specific recipe directions.

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Summer Berry Pudding

6 Aug

Berry pudding

With summer berries so plentiful and relatively inexpensive right now, here is a great recipe for a summer dessert.

Two things surprised me when I made this recipe. The first was that it was from the New York Times, where recipes tend to be complex or made with hard-to-find ingredients, and this one was very simple. Then I realized, as I purchased the loaf of super-puffy supermarket white bread that it calls for, that I hadn’t made such a purchase in many, many years. Even before we (meaning my husband, Joe) started baking almost all our bread, we would buy bread from local bakeries, not from the supermarket. On the rare occasions that we bought packaged bread from the grocery store, it would be something with lots of whole grains and seeds in it. So I was surprised at just how soft and spongy supermarket white bread is.

Like me, you may be tempted to sneer at this kind of bread, but it’s what you need for this recipe. You can use up any leftovers in French toast or cinnamon toast.

Ingredients:

1¾ lb. mixed berries (e.g. blueberries, raspberries and strawberries) – about 6 cups
½ cup sugar, or a little more to taste
1 Tbs. lemon juice, or a little more to taste
A few drops of rosewater (optional)
10 to 12 slices soft white bread, crusts removed

Directions:

Combine the berries, sugar and ⅓ cup water in a saucepan. Simmer over medium heat until sugar is completely dissolved and the berries release their juices, about 7 to 10 minutes. Stir in the lemon juice. The sauce should be sweet with a hint of tartness. Add more sugar or lemon to your taste. Stir in the rosewater if you use it.

Spoon an even layer of berry syrup (not the berries themselves) over the bottom of an 8-inch loaf pan or a medium-sized bowl. Line the bottom of the pan or bowl with a single layer of bread; cut the slices into smaller pieces as necessary to make them fit.

Berry pudding with ice creamSpoon a third of the fruit on top of the bread, making sure the bread is completely covered; top with another layer of bread. Repeat twice, alternating layers of fruit and bread and ending with bread on the top (so you’ll have four layers of bread and three layers of fruit).

Let the mixture cool completely, then wrap tightly with plastic wrap; the wrap should rest on the top of the pudding. Place a light weight on top of the pudding (e.g. a couple of ceramic mugs or small cans if you’re using a loaf pan, or a small plate if you’re using a bowl). Refrigerate at least 6 hours or overnight.

When ready to serve, run a knife around the sides of the pudding, cover it with the serving plate and then turn it over to unmold. It should slip right out of the pan or bowl. Serve in slices with cream, whipped cream or ice cream on top.

Serves 8