Classic Strawberry Shortcake

I know it was Julia Child’s 100th birthday this week and she was an important person in my life. Although it was my Mom who taught me the basics, Julia taught me to take giant leaps beyond. I didn’t cook every recipe in her first volume of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, but I did make many of them. A boyfriend had given me that book — a treasured first edition — which is now gravy stained and coverless and signed by Julia herself on one of my favorite recipes (I met her when I took a cooking course along with several hundred other people like in some College 101 class).

So, Happy Birthday Julia.

But this week was also a friend’s birthday. A what you call “round number” birthday, so I invited her to my house, along with another friend, who recently celebrated that same round number birthday. We had a few hors d’oeuvre with a nice few glasses of wine, then grilled fish with Grilled Pineapple Salsa (and a few vegetables) for dinner.

SO healthy. We are all at that nice round number watch-what-you-eat age.

But dessert? Oh well. Why count calories when summer strawberries are out and you can eat Strawberry Shortcake?

Which is what I made instead of baking or buying a birthday cake.

Not a morsel was left on our plates.

Classic Strawberry Shortcake

2 pounds fresh strawberries
3 tablespoons plus 1 teaspoon sugar
orange, mango or papaya juice
2 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 teaspoon salt
2-1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1-1/2 teaspoons finely grated fresh lemon peel
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
1 large egg
1/2 cup milk
1 cup whipping cream

Preheat the oven to 450°F. Wash the berries and slice them into a bowl, sprinkle them with 2 tablespoons sugar and a few tablespoons of juice and set aside. In another bowl, mix the flour, 1 tablespoon sugar, salt, baking powder and lemon peel. Add the butter and work into the dry ingredients until the mixture resembles coarse meal. In a small bowl, beat the egg and milk together until well combined. Add the liquids to the flour mixture and mix until a soft dough forms. Roll or press the dough to 1/2-inch thick circle on a lightly floured surface. Cut out 8 circles with a cookie cutter. Place the circles on an ungreased cookie sheet. Bake for 12–15 minutes or until puffed and lightly brown. Remove from the oven and let cool. Whip the cream with the remaining teaspoon sugar until the mixture stands in soft peaks. Cut the biscuits in half and place each bottom half on a serving dish. Place the berries and any accumulated juices on top. Pour some of the cream on top. Top with the remaining biscuit halves. Makes 8 servings.

Strawberry-Rhubarb-Blackberry Pie

Is there any food more “American” than pie?

Okay, maybe. Hot dogs, hamburgers and stuff. Cole Slaw. Potato salad. And lots of others.

Actually, none of the ones I mentioned were “American” at the start. Hot dogs, burgers and potato salad are German foods, Cole Slaw is Dutch and Pie began as British.

No matter. They’re American now, all terrific summer foods also. And all perfect for any Fourth of July celebration.

So, when our local Hadassah decided that our biweekly Tea (for cancer patients and their caregivers at Stamford Hospital) should have a Fourth of July theme, I decided to bake a pie to give. 

This one is red (sort of), white (beige crust/white sugar) and blue: a riff on Strawberry-Rhubarb Pie. It includes blackberries because I had some in the house and figured why not. You can leave out the blackberries and add more rhubarb and/or strawberries.

Also, I used orange peel as flavor, but you can switch to lemon peel. And I used orange juice for the crust. First because orange goes really well with berries and rhubarb and also, my mother, a consummate pie baker, always told me that the liquid you use to make pie dough can be just about anything. She frequently used juice for fruit pie (the juice depended on the pie). Juice not only gives the crust more flavor, it helps the dough bake into a lovely brown color crust too.

Strawberry-Rhubarb-Blackberry Pie

dough:

2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

3/4 teaspoon salt

1 teaspoon grated orange peel

1/2 cup unsalted butter

1/3 cup chilled vegetable shortening

4-5 tablespoons orange juice

filling:

3 cups sliced (1/2-inch pieces) rhubarb, about one pound

2 cups strawberries cut in half

1 cup blackberries

2/3 cup sugar (or to taste)

1/4 teaspoon salt

5 tablespoons flour

1 teaspoon grated orange peel

1/4 teaspoon cinnamon

1 tablespoon butter

Combine the flour, salt and orange peel in a food processor. Add the butter and shortening in chunks and process on pulse about 24 times, until the mixture resembles coarse meal. Gradually add as much of the juice as is needed to make a soft, but not sticky dough. Cut the dough in half, flatten into disks and let the dough rest in the refrigerator for 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 375 degrees. Roll the dough into circles to fit a 9” pie pan. Place one circle inside the pie pan.

To make the filling, combine the rhubarb, strawberries, blackberries, sugar, salt, flour, orange peel and cinnamon. Add the filling to the pie pan. Cut the butter into chunks and place on top of the filling. Cut strips from the second dough circle and place them in a lattice design on top of the fruit. Seal the edges where the strips meet the bottom crust. Bake for 50-60 minutes or until golden brown.

Makes one 9-inch pie

Blueberry Crisp

What’s one of the best things you can do with boxed breakfast cereal? Use it as crust for fruit crisps!

My Mom used cereal crust over apples and when I went to visit my parents on cool autumn days the perfume of this dish baking in the oven would reach me all the way out past the garage. As soon as I opened the car door I’d know I was in for a really good treat for dessert. 

She served the dish still warm, with cold cream on top.

Those were good days.

When I wrote my last cookbook, Hip Kosher, I decided to include My Mom’s special recipe but use it with blueberries, not apples. And this week, when I saw some good looking blueberries on sale, I decided to make that dish for my weekend company. I used Raisin Bran, rolled oats and almonds.

This was a big hit. 

Btw, for variety, you can make a simple change by adding some sliced peaches.

BLUEBERRY CRISP  

2 pints fresh blueberries

1/3 cup sugar

5 tablespoons all-purpose flour

1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

2 tablespoons lemon juice

1 cup bran flakes or raisin bran

1/2 cup quick cooking or rolled oats

1/2 cup chopped nuts such as almonds, cashews or pecans

1/4 cup brown sugar

1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

6 tablespoons melted unsalted butter or margarine

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Combine the blueberries, sugar, flour, 1/4 teaspoon cinnamon and lemon juice in a 6-quart baking dish. Set aside. Crush the cereal flakes slightly and put them in a bowl. Add the oats, nuts, brown sugar and 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon and toss ingredients to distribute them evenly. Pour in the melted butter. Mix until the dry the ingredients are coated with the melted butter. Place the cereal mixture over the fruit. Bake for 30 minutes or until the crust is crispy and brown. Let cool slightly but serve warm (may be rewarmed). Serve plain or with cream, ice cream, whipped cream, or sorbet.

Makes 6–8 servings.

Pear Torte

Creative People aren’t usually creative just about one thing. They think in unusual and varied ways about a lot.

Like my niece Rachel, who writes children’s books (such as Sometimes I’m Bombaloo and Justin Case) and young adult fiction (such as Lucky and Brilliant).

She decided she wanted to bake the Plum Torte recipe I posted a few months back. But plums aren’t in season now. So she made the cake with pears, and added a little vanilla to the batter, because pears and vanilla, well, it’s a perfect duo.

So here’s her recipe. We had this as one of the MANY desserts on Saturday night at her mother and father’s (my brother) annual Hanukkah party. It was DE-LISH!

Pear Torte

1/2 cup unsalted butter

3/4 cup plus one tablespoon sugar

1 cup all-purpose flour

1 teaspoon baking powder

1 teaspoon finely grated lemon peel

1/4 teaspoon salt

2 large eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

2 ripe pears, unpeeled, cored, sliced

lemon juice (about one tablespoon)

cinnamon (about 1/4 teaspoon)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9-inch springform pan. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and 3/4 cup sugar on medium speed for 3-4 minutes or until creamy and well blended. Add the flour, baking powder, lemon peel and salt and mix briefly to blend ingredients slightly. Add the eggs and vanilla extract beat at medium speed for 2-3 minutes or until smooth and creamy. Spoon the batter into the prepared springform pan. Arrange the pear slices on top, pressing them slightly into the batter. Sprinkle the cake with the remaining tablespoon sugar. Squeeze some lemon juice over the cake and sprinkle with cinnamon. Bake for 55-60 minutes or until browned, set and crispy. Let cool. Makes 8 servings

Another Plum Torte

Another recipe for Plum Torte?

Yeah. Why not?! 

Because it’s one of the best of the best cakes to eat. No, don’t say you like chocolate cake or coconut cake better. Plum Torte serves an entirely different purpose. You can’t compare it to any other cake. It’s its own thing.

I have no idea why Plum Torte is a typical Rosh Hashanah-Yom Kippur Break-the-Fast dessert. Maybe it’s because those lovely little Italian prune plums needed for the recipe are in season at about the same time as the Jewish High Holidays. All I know is that this was one of THE desserts for the holidays even when I was a little girl.

There are dozens of recipes for it. Plum Torte is one of those recipes like apple pie. Everyone who bakes one does a little something different. The New York Times used to print their tried-and-true recipe every September. I’ve made that one and it is quite good. This one is even better. I just made two to freeze and reheat for my annual Break-the-Fast Saturday night:

Plum Torte

• 1/2 cup unsalted butter

• 3/4 cup plus one tablespoon sugar

• 1 cup all-purpose flour

• 1 teaspoon baking powder

• 1/2 teaspoon finely grated lemon peel

• 1/4 teaspoon salt

• 2 large eggs

• 15 prune plums, pit removed, quartered

• lemon juice (about one tablespoon)

• cinnamon (about 1/4 teaspoon)

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly grease a 9-inch springform pan. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and 3/4 cup sugar on medium speed for 3-4 minutes or until creamy and well blended. Add the flour, baking powder, lemon peel and salt and mix briefly to blend ingredients slightly. Add the eggs and beat at medium speed for 2-3 minutes or until smooth and creamy. Spoon the batter into the prepared springform pan. Arrange the plum quarters on top, pressing them slightly into the batter. Sprinkle the cake with the remaining tablespoon sugar. Squeeze some lemon juice over the cake and sprinkle with cinnamon. Bake for 55-60 minutes or until browned, set and crispy. Let cool.

Makes 8 servings

Simple Baked Apples

If you want to sell your house make Baked Apples. There are few foods as compellingly homey and delicious as this one and the sweet-smelling wisps of caramelized fruit that filter through the rooms almost say “you will love this place because this is a great kitchen and a wonderful home with delicious things to eat and everyone is happy here.”

When we sold our old house several years ago I remember the broker telling us to have stuff baking that smelled good and would make potential buyers feel at home. She suggested packaged dough to be baked into bread (you can buy frozen dough, challah, and such). But, me being me, I decided on baked apple things like pie, cake and plain old baked apple. 

I’m not guaranteeing anything here folks. Just sayin’. If the house smells good, it can’t hurt. And Baked Apples also have the added benefit of tasting absolutely wonderful. So everyone will eat them and you’ll have to make more and your house will always smell as good.

Fortunately Baked Apples are easy to make if you don’t get all fancy about them. And are especially good at this time of year when you can get fresh, new crop apples and also different, better-for-baking varieties (Rome Beauty, Cortland, York Imperial are best) than you can buy at other times of the year.

Here’s one of my simplest recipes. 

Baked Apples

• 4 large baking apples
• half a lemon
• 1/2 cup raisins
• 2 tablespoons finely chopped almonds or hazelnuts
• 4 tablespoons honey or maple syrup
• 1 cup orange juice, apple juice or cider
• cinnamon
• 1 tablespoon butter, cut into 4 pieces

Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Wash the apples, then remove the core and seeds, leaving about 1/2-inch on the bottom. Peel the apples 1/2 of the way down from the stem end on top, then rub the cut surfaces with the cut side of the lemon. Put the apples in a baking dish. In a small bowl, mix the raisins, nuts, one tablespoon of the honey or maple syrup and 3-4 tablespoons of the juice. Stuff this mixture into the apple hollows. Pour the remaining honey and the remaining juice over the apples. Sprinkle the apples lightly with cinnamon. Dot the tops with butter. Bake the apples for about 45 minutes, basting occasionally with the pan juices, or until the apples are tender. Serve warm or at room temperature.

Makes 4 

Aunt Beck's Apple Cake; Sibling Rivalry, part 2

Sibling Rivalry Part 2

Yesterday I mentioned the apple-baking rivalry between my Mom and her sister, my Aunt Beck. It was a really fascinating thing for them to be competitive about because although my mother loved to cook and was really good at it, Aunt Beck wasn’t much of a food person and never thought of herself as much of a cook. In fact, my grandma lived with that family and she did most of the cooking.

Somehow the sisters got themselves into this apple thing though. Aunt Beck figured that her little sister could star in the kitchen but, well, with this one exception.

Aunt Beck’s family, the Cohens, raved about the apple cake.

My family, the Vails, raved about the apple pie.

To tell you the truth, both were really delicious. I make both and am in competition with no one.

So, Aunt Beck, you may not have thought of yourself as a stellar cook, but you did let me and Leslie play with all your snazzy clothes and open toe high heels and you did actually make a fabulous apple cake.

So, here’s to you. I miss you.

Your recipe:

Aunt Beck’s Famous Two-Crust Apple CakeCrust:

Crust:

• 2 large eggs

• 3/4 cup sugar

• 3/4 cup vegetable oil

• 1/4 cup orange juice

• 4 cups all-purpose flour

• 1 tablespoon baking powder

• 1 teaspoon salt

• 2 teaspoon grated fresh orange peel, optional

Filling:

• 3 pounds tart apples, peeled and sliced

• 1 cup sugar

• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon if desired

• 2-3 tablespoons all-purpose flour

• 2 tablespoons butter or margarine, cut into tiny pieces

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. To make the crust, beat the eggs, sugar, vegetable oil and orange juice together in a mixer set at medium speed for 1-2 minutes or until well mixed. Add the flour, baking powder, salt and orange peel, if used, and mix until a smooth, soft, uniform dough has formed, about 2-3 minutes. Cut the dough into two pieces, one piece twice as large as the other. Press the larger piece into the bottom and halfway up the sides of a 13”x9” pan (or roll the dough and fit it inside the pan). Mix the apples, sugar, cinnamon if used, and flour together in a bowl (the amount of flour depending on juiciness of the apples) and place the mixture over the dough. Dot the surface with butter. Roll the smaller piece of dough and place it on top. Press the edges to seal them. Bake for 50-60 minutes or until well browned.

Makes 12 servings

Lily Vail's Apple Pie; Sibling Rivalry, part 1

Sibling Rivalry, Part I

I timed last year’s apple pies perfectly. Every September I call Blue Jay Orchards in Bethel, Connecticut and order a bushel of Rhode Island Greening apples. They are one of the only orchards that I know who still grows this stupendously wonderful apple variety that is the absolutely best apple for pie no matter what anyone else, even the most expert of experts in the food business, says.

I make 12 apple pies every year and then, as the months go by, eat them down when company or my eldest grand child (who eats almost nothing but likes my apple pie) comes.

So now I have one pie left, which we will have this week because I just called Blue Jay and put in my order for this year.

When I called them last week they weren’t sure they would have the apples this year because of all the rain and hurricanes, especially Hurricane Irene. Ohmyohmyohmy, that sounded like terrible news at the time and I actually began to think about other apples I could bake into a pie.

But they told me to call back in a day or so and sure enough, when I did they told me that they have some! So I am in luck.

I never did decide on what apples I would have used.

Anyway, my Mom made apple pie every year too. Her sister, my Aunt Beck, made apple cake. And, you know, sisters will be sisters. They loved each other lots but they had this kind of apple-baking rivalry come September, when the new apples came out. They each not-so-secretly let everyone in the family know that the pie or cake was much better than the cake or pie.

And so it went. I liked both, but, being daughter to the pie baker, I learned to bake the pie.

My mother was the one who clued me into the Rhode Island Greening apples. And she showed me how to make the dough and how to cut the butter and shortening into the flour so the crust would be crumbly and how not to add too much liquid because that makes the dough rubbery. She also taught me how to roll the dough gently, so it would be tender. “Don’t murder the dough!,” she used to caution.

Her apple pies were the best of the best and I use her recipe, so, well, I don’t want to brag but —- everyone says mine are the best of the best.

Here’s the recipe., You might not be able to find Rhode Island Greening apples. So you’re on your own here. If you use a sweeter apple, cut back on the sugar.

Apple Pie

crust:

• 2-1/2 cups all-purpose flour

• 1 teaspoon sugar

• 3/4 teaspoon salt

• 1 teaspoon grated fresh lemon peel, optional

• 1/2 cup cold butter

• 1/3 cup cold vegetable shortening

• 4-6 tablespoons cold milk, juice, water or melted ice cream

• apple filling

• 1 tablespoon butter

To make the crust: Combine the flour, sugar, salt, and lemon peel, if used, in a large bowl. Cut the butter and shortening into chunks and add the chunks to the flour mixture. Work the fat into the flour mixture until the ingredients resemble crumbs (use your hands, a pastry blender or the pulse feature of a food processor). Add the liquid, using only enough to gather pastry into a soft ball of dough (start with 4 tablespoons). Cut the dough in half and flatten each half to make a disk shape. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap and let it stand at least 30 minutes.

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Lightly flour a pastry board or clean work surface. With a rolling pin, roll one half of the dough on the floured surface into a circle about 1/8-inch thick, making sure the circle is larger than the pie pan by about 1 inch. Place the dough in a 9” or 10” pie pan. Pour the apple filling into the pastry-lined pan. Cut the butter into small pieces and place on top of the filling. Roll out the remaining dough and place it over the filling. Gently press the bottom and top crusts together along the flared edge of the pie pan. For a fluted rim, press your thumb and index finger against the outside of the rim, or crimp it with the tines of a fork or the blunt side of a knife. Cut steam vents in the top crust with the tip of a sharp knife or the tines of a fork. Bake the pie for 50-60 minutes or until golden brown.

Apple Filling:

• 3 pounds pie apples (Rhode Island Greenings, Granny Smith, Gravenstein, Northern Spy, Golden Delicious, Idared, Stayman, Winesap, Baldwin, Jonagold, Braeburn

• 1/2 cup sugar, approximately

• 2 tablespoons lemon juice

• 3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon

• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour

Peel and core the apples then cut them into slices. Place the slices in a bowl. Add the sugar, lemon juice, cinnamon and flour and toss the ingredients to coat the apple slices evenly.

Mom’s Raisin Bran Apple Crisp

Wanna Sell Your House? Smell this!

Yesterday I baked a Banana Bread that I couldn’t eat because I’m allergic. But I always have leftover bananas around so I make Banana Bread a lot. I love the aroma. In fact, I mentioned yesterday that it is one of the best kitchen smells there is.

Which reminded me about when we were selling our old house. The real estate agent told us to make sure there were some good aromas coming out of the kitchen in order to entice prospective buyers.

So I got to thinking about the good smells that come out of a kitchen and what I could bake or make to make my kitchen be the one someone wanted to cook in and therefore buy my house. I even wrote one of my newspaper articles about house-selling aromas.

Choices I considered: fresh coffee, tomato sauce, fresh-baked yeast bread, anything with baking apples.

Well, fresh coffee is the easiest but you can’t have it going all day or it tastes and begins to smell bitter.

Yeast bread is my favorite, but I didn’t always have the time to bake one.

Tomato sauce may be among my favorites but the garlic could be off-putting to some.

So, apple it was. Baked apple. Apple pie. Apple Crisp. 

Fortunately we had some wonderful desserts during that time. We did sell the house too!

Here’s a recipe with an intoxicating aroma — my 

 Mom’s Raisin Bran Apple Crisp:

•  2 tablespoons butter

• 4-5 large, tart apples, peeled, cored and sliced

• 2 tablespoons sugar or honey

• 1 teaspoon cinnamon

• pinch or two of salt

• 1/3 cup sugar

• 3 tablespoons butter

• 1 tablespoon all-purpose flour

• 2 cups slightly crushed raisin bran cereal

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Melt the 2 tablespoons butter and set aside to cool slightly. Combine the apples, 2 tablespoons sugar, cinnamon, salt and melted butter and place in a baking dish. Cream the 1/3 cup sugar and 3 tablespoons butter with an electric beater until well combined. Beat in the flour. Add the raisin bran and work it into the creamed mixture gently, leaving the bran flakes more or less intact. Sprinkle this mixture on top of the apples. Cover the pan and bake for 30 minutes. Remove the cover and bake for 10-15 minutes or until crisp and golden brown.

Makes 8 servings

Cherry Cobbler for a birthday

Today is George Washington’s real birthday. Back in the day, we celebrated it on February 22nd. At school we made 3 cornered hats and colored them black. We learned about Washington, as a general, crossing the Delaware during the American Revolution. 

And of course we heard the same story every year. That George Washington never told a lie and one time he chopped down a cherry tree and then immediately ‘fessed up.

No one really knows if that one is true or not. Nevertheless, Washington’s birthday and cherry desserts were always the “big thing” long long before President’s Day became associated with sales on cars, clothes and mattresses.

So, happy birthday dear first president. I sometimes wonder what you would think about the political climate of the 21st century.

Cherry Cobbler

• 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 1 cup sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 6 tablespoons butter
• 1 large egg
• 1/3 cup milk
• 4 cups sour red cherries, drained canned or fresh, pitted
• 2 tablespoons minute tapioca
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice

 Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Mix the flour, 1/4 cup sugar, baking powder and salt in a bowl. Add 4 tablespoons butter and work into the dry ingredients until the mixture is crumbly. Beat the egg and milk together. Add to the dry ingredients and mix until a soft dough has been formed. In a separate bowl, mix the cherries, remaining 3/4 cup sugar, tapioca and lemon juice. Let stand for 10 minutes. Place the cherry mixture into a baking dish or pie pan. Cut the remaining 2 tablespoons butter into small pieces and scatter on top of the cherries. Roll or press the dough to fit the baking dish or pie pan, crimping the edges to seal the dough to the pan. Make 2-3 slits in the dough. Bake for about 30 minutes or until golden brown.

Makes 6 servings