Berry Shortbread Cobbler

Anyone want to join me while I go and stick my head under a rock and pretend summer is going to stick around forever? Summer with its juicy berries and crispy veggies, lots of sunlight and dresses-no jacket required. But as the nights get shorter and September comes rushing in, there's no denying fall, and winter, are on their way.

What to do when you can't stop summer's departure? Develop a strategy for survival through the cold, winter months and start practicing...now.

I'm a huge fan of frozen berries. There's no sense of urgency to eat them, and while not the same as fresh berries, they make a pretty darn good substitute. More often than not my freezer is stocked with a large bag of frozen berries from Costco, berries that will get me through the winter and help me make cobblers like this even on the coldest nights.

Atop the gooey, berry base is a buttery, crumbly cobbler topping. If you're anything like me, it will make you swoon and lose all sense of self control. Butter, sugar, flour, oats, cinnamon and on a whim the addition of a little creamy peanut butter adds interest and complexity to an otherwise straightforward cobbler topping.

Triple Berry Shortbread Cobbler (Printable Recipe)

Since my self-control is pathetic around fruit desserts, I adjusted this recipe to serve four and baked it in an 6x6-inch baking dish. If you're looking to feed more, or just want a little more for yourself, doubling the recipe and serving it in a 10- or 12-inch baking dish should work just fine.

Ingredients

Topping
*1 stick butter, melted
*1/4 cup creamy peanut butter, melted
*3/4 cup all-purpose flour
*1/2 cup rolled oats
*1/4 cup granulated sugar
*1/8 tsp. salt
*1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon

Berry Filling
*2 cups frozen mixed berries (blueberries, blackberries, and raspberries)
*1/4 cup all-purpose flour
*1/4 cup granulated sugar

Instructions
*Preheat oven to 350°F. Grease a 6x6-inch baking dish and set aside.
*In a large bowl, stir together the butter and peanut butter until well-combined. Add in the flour, oats, sugar, salt and ground cinnamon and stir until wet and dry ingredients are evenly mixed. Set aside.
*In a bowl, toss together the berries, (they can be frozen or thawed - mine were frozen when I made this and it turned out great) the flour and the sugar. Pour into the greased baking dish.
*Sprinkle the topping mixture in clumps atop the berries. Bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until the topping is slightly golden and berry mixture is bubbly.
*Remove from the oven and allow to rest at least 10 minutes before serving. Serving with vanilla ice cream is strongly recommended if you have some on hand.

Happy Baking!

Madison

Light and Fit Berry Sorbet

There are very few things I love to eat in the summer more than ice creams and sorbets. Actually, it's not just during the summer, it's all throughout the year. But during the summertime, blogs, websites, magazines, and newspapers are abuzz with recipe after recipe, touting the ease of making your own ice cream and sorbet at home. All this sounds well and good, until I read the dreaded phrase that inevitably comes with almost every recipe I read during the summer months: put the mixture into your ice cream maker.

Ice cream maker? Exactly how many people in America own an ice cream maker? As a dedicated food writer, cook, and blogger I own my fair share of great appliances and specialty kitchen tools, but ice cream maker has never quite made the cut. Spending upwards of sixty dollars on something I might use a half a dozen times during the summer just doesn't cut it on my 22-year-old budget.

So today I bring you my solution to the no ice cream maker dilemma. This homemade berry sorbet takes less than 5 minutes to prepare, has three ingredients, is incredibly refreshing, and doesn't require an ice cream maker. It does, however, require a food processor. If I could recommend one piece of kitchen equipment, a food processor would certainly be it. This baby is life changing in the kitchen and with the right equipment, it goes from blender to mixer to box grater to processor. Magic!

And if you need one more reason to convince you this sorbet is worth making, it is incredibly healthy. In fact, it is so healthy you could justify eating for breakfast and dessert; I have. To make sure you aren't packing the sorbet with hidden sugar, picking the right yogurt is key. For this reason, I love Dannon Light and Fit. It's relatively low in added sugar and calories, and has great flavor and creamy texture. Now if you'll excuse me, I'm off to eat more sorbet!


Light and Fit Berry Sorbet
(Printable Recipe)
Ingredients:
*2 cups frozen mixed berries
*3/4 cup vanilla yogurt (I favor Dannon Light and Fit)
*2 Tbsp. Splenda, Stevia, or other sweetener

Instructions:
*In a food processor, place the frozen berries and process for 30 seconds.
*Add the yogurt and Splenda to the food processor and continue to process for 1 to 2 minutes, scraping down the sides of the bowl as necessary, until the mixture is well combined and smooth.
*Remove from the food processor and spoon into bowls. Serve immediately or freeze until ready to use. If you freeze for more than 1 hour and the sorbet is too hard to scoop, zap in the microwave for 15 seconds to soften.

Happy Cooking!

Madison

Triple Berry Pound Cake Muffins

Camping mission accomplished!

More often than not I judge the success of my day, or in this case weekend, by my level of productivity. As far as productivity goes, this weekend was a major success. Not only did I experience camping for the first time, but we also managed to secure an apartment for J. to live in when he starts his job next month. That may not seem like much of an accomplishment, but if you saw some of the apartments we looked at you would probably agree we accomplished quite a bit.

Street view of the apartment

 And the happy apartment hunters! 

Oh, and we ate. A lot. I had no idea camping is as much serious eating as it is outdoor recreation. Along with this salad I also brought along a few sweeter treats, including these muffins. Sure, they are a little more pound cake than muffin, but who's really counting?

Truthfully, I whipped up these little beauties a couple hours before leaving for the weekend. Since my kitchen was stocked with basics but running low on fun mix-ins, I threw in a cup of frozen mixed berries since they can almost always be found in my freezer. And while I imagined they would satisfy hungry campers for breakfast, I had no idea they would be such a hit! Gone within the first 48 hours of our little camping adventure, the biggest complaint was that there weren't enough to last the entire trip.

 

Triple Berry Pound Cake Muffins 

(Printable Recipe)

Ingredients:

*1 cup butter, softened 

*2 1/3 cups sugar 

*3 large eggs 

*3 1/3 cups all-purpose flour

*1/4 tsp. salt

*1/2 cup milk

*1 tsp. almond extract

*1 cup frozen mixed berries (keep frozen, no need to thaw - fresh berries may be substituted if desired)

*1 cup powdered sugar 

*1/4 cup milk

Instructions:

*Preheat oven to 325*F. 

*Beat butter with an electric mixer on medium high speed for 2 minutes. Gradually add sugar. Beat 3 minutes more. Add eggs, one at a time, beating until just combined and yellow disappears. 

*Combine flour and salt in a large bowl. Add flour to butter mixture alternately with milk, beginning and ending with the flour mixture. Stir in almond extract. Gently beat in the frozen mixed berries by hand.

*Spoon batter into muffin/cupcake pan lined with paper muffin liners, filling about 3/4 of the way full. Bake for 18 to 22 minutes, or until toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from oven and cool on wire rack.

*Stir together the powdered sugar and 1/4 cup milk. Drizzle over muffins while muffins are still warm. 

Happy Baking!

Madison

One-Bowl Blackberry Cake

 

If ever there was such a thing as a 'breakfast cake' this, my friends, would be it. And if there was such a thing as a 'perfect for every occasion' cake, this would also be it. Time and time again I have made this humble dessert: for brunches, breakfasts, coffee dates, and dinner parties. And every time it comes through for me - the knight-in-shining-armor of cakes. It wins extra points for having a very basic ingredient list, for not being temperamental and coming together in one bowl with a spoon or fork, no mixer required. 

And if that wasn't enough to make you love it, this little beauty continues to impress when you put fork to cake to mouth. It's light and pleasantly sweet, contrasting nicely with the tanginess of the berries. A dusting of sugar before baking becomes a crisp crust, transformed by the heat of the oven. When serving this cake for dessert or a decadent brunch item, I drizzle a simple glaze made of powdered sugar and milk over the cake while it is still warm, though it's beautiful and plenty sweet without, too. Depending on the season and my mood, I substitute berries of all types and have had equally great success when substituting whole wheat flour for the all-purpose kind. 

As much as I love variety, change, and experimenting with new recipes, there are times when having a reliable, delicious recipe like this one is all kinds of necessary. A recipe that can be whipped together in a moment's notice for impromptu guests or when the recipe you were planning on making totally flopped. If you stop by for brunch, coffee, or dessert, I'll probably serve you this cake. And if you're lucky, I'll send the leftovers home with you, too. That is, if there are any leftovers to be had. 

 

One-Bowl Blackberry Cake

(Printable Recipe)

Ingredients:

*1 cup all-purpose flour

*1/2 tsp. baking powder

*1/2 tsp. baking soda

*1/4 tsp. salt

*2/3 cup sugar (plus 1 1/2 Tbsp. extra for top)

*1/2 stick (4 Tbsp.) butter, melted

*1 large egg

*1/2 cup milk (I use 2%)

*1 tsp. almond extract

*1 tsp. lemon juice

*1 cup fresh blackberries 

Instructions:

*Preheat oven to 400*F. Butter and flour a 9-inch cake pan (I used a 10-inch tart pan, which worked nice, too). 

*In a large bowl, combine the flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt, and sugar. 

*Add the melted butter, egg, milk, almond extract, and lemon juice to the bowl and stir (by hand) until ingredients are well-combined and batter is smooth.

*Pour batter into the cake pan. Top with the blackberries and sprinkle the top of the cake with 1 1/2 Tbsp. sugar. 

*Bake for 20 to 25 minutes, until a wooden pick comes out clean when inserted into the center. (For the 10-inch tart pan, bake 18-20 minutes.) Cool on wire rack.

Happy Baking!

Madison

Breakfast Dilemmas

Breakfast. In my opinion, one of the most glorious times of the day. I'm a morning person by nature, made even more so by a few cups of strong coffee. My favorite mornings are those when I am able to sit and have a long breakfast, usually stretching over a couple hours, while watching the Today Show and reading the paper.

But beyond coffee, breakfast can also present some challenges, because what is consumed in the morning usually sets the tone for eating patterns the rest of the day. Can anyone relate? I know if I start the day off with something overly sweet, my willpower the rest of the day is at a serious disadvantage. Battling my sweet tooth once it gets going is a losing game.

Some may suggest a fiber-filled bowl of oatmeal, but I find that starting my day off with a heaping bowl of carbohydrates, even if they are the good kind, just isn't a good fit either. What's a busy, health-concious, food-loving girl to do? Don't write me off as crazy when I tell you that my solution is a Berry Tofu Smoothie.

I beg you....give this recipe a try. Packed with protein, calcium, and a serving of fruit, my Berry Tofu Smoothie manages to curb my craving for sweet without loading me down and keeps me full for hours. Try it.... and let me know what you think!

Berry Tofu Smoothie:

1 cup frozen mixed berries of your choice
1/2 cup Silken Tofu (firm or soft, it does not matter)
1/2 - 3/4cup skim milk
1 light yogurt such as Dannon Light and Fit or YoLight (any flavor you like)
2 tsp. Splenda (optional, but I like my smoothie a bit sweeter)

In a blender, process until smooth. The mixture will be thick, which I love. If you want a more drinkable smoothie, just add a bit more milk.

Enjoy!
Madison