Personal Peach Cobbler (and other fall stuff)

It's definitely fall. Where in central Vermont that once meant amazing foliage and crunchy fallen leaves to step on, it's now more about cloudy and rainy days with cold nights that justify the five days we spent hauling and stacking our three cords of firewood. (Whatever. I'll take it!) It also means pretty fall veggies, fruits, and... whatever this thing is.

(It's actually cauliflower. It's quite a hit with some stoners I know, though I haven't yet tasted it or heard any reviews from someone who has. It does have some cool mathematical properties, but I'm not sure how that impacts its taste.)

It's been a pretty good season of getting stuff from our CSA and picking our own whatever. A side note on that, by the way. We had "pick your own pumpkins" on the last day of our summer CSA. I was pretty excited about picking a nice fat pumpkin and hacking its stem off with a machete. So I was kind of confused when they didn't give us a machete when they pointed out the pumpkin patch. We went out there and all the pumpkins were already cut and just laying around on the ground.

Isn't that "pick-your-own" in the same sense that any produce aisle at a grocery store is pick-your-own? 

In any case, the point is that we have a bunch of pretty stuff that's all local and organic. (Except that melon with the sticker on it. That's from New Jersey.)

What I'm really trying to say is it's time to bake a bunch of fall stuff. Let's get this ADD party under control and get a recipe out there. There are really two: peach cobbler and pumpkin bread. To make it easier to find navigate later, I'll post pumpkin bread in a separate entry, though.

Ingredients 
(enough topping for about 3-4 one-person ramekins)

• 1/2 cup flour
• 1/2 cup rolled oats
• 1/2 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1/4 cup (1/2 stick) butter, melted
• pinch baking soda
• pinch baking powder
• peaches, sliced

Procedure

Preheat oven to 350F. Fill little baking cups/ramekins almost to the top with sliced peaches. Add a tablespoon of water into each ramekin. [Note: I use peaches that I froze, so there is probably marginally more water content there than if you're using fresh ones, especially if the fresh ones you're using aren't that ripe. So you may want to edit that amount accordingly.] If you really have a sweet tooth, you can add a tablespoon or less for brown sugar here, but I just like the filling to be as is. 

Mix all the other ingredients in a bowl. It's easiest to just mush it up with your hands. There shouldn't be any really dry parts when you're done.

Crumble over the top of each ramekin. To get the peaches really bubbling, try to create a seal over the top of the fruit.  Bake in the oven for about 30 minutes. The topping should be a nice golden brown by then.

Wait a few minutes for it to cool slightly (and so you don't look like a total glutton because you grab food out of the oven and shove it down your throat -- again, maybe that's just me), and then EAT, man. With a cup of black tea. It'll survive waiting overnight and being reheated, but you're not doing anyone any favors by waiting more than a few minutes.

Variations

• You can use a glass baking dish if you want to just make one normal-sized cobbler; bake for about 45-60 minutes in that case, and add a few tablespoons of water. 

• Most other fruits are bound to work well -- combinations of them, too. I've successfully used apples, raspberries, blueberries, and strawberries. 
• If you're using apples, increase the amount of water to about 1/4 cup if filling an 8x8 baking dish, and probably add some sugar -- I put in 1/3 cup for a full 8x8 dish. For the berries, no extra sugar is necessary in the filling, and very little water, if any.
• If using strawberries, 3 teaspoons of brown sugar and 2 teaspoons of flour is all you need to add to the filling. No water.
• If using blueberries, definitely don't add water. About 3 teaspoons each of white sugar and flour works pretty well.

Baked Apples

We went to Moore's Orchard in Pomfret, VT for their last day of apple-picking. The lady there told me that they're closing their orchards to the public even though there are plenty of apples left on the trees for two primary reasons: (1) they'll use the rest of the apples for cider, and (2) the bears can't find wild apples this year and they want to leave enough for them; she said, "they've been hanging out in the orchards every night this season and throwing parties." Living in VT is awesome.

This recipe is really simple. It's roughly what my dad used to make for us when I was a kid as an after-dinner treat. Not gonna lie, though. Today I ate it for breakfast.

Ingredients
(makes 4 baked apples)
4 apples
3-4 Tbsp raisins
2-3 tsp honey
4 tsp scotch/brandy/whiskey/cognac

Procedure
Preheat the oven to 350F. Core the apples, but don't poke through all the way to the bottom, so that you're left with a kind of cup.

Save the tops that you cut off, too, because you're going to put them back on when you bake the apples. Place the apples in a baking dish (a lot of juice might come out, especially if you've accidentally poked a hole in the bottom, so you definitely don't want to do this without one).

Fill apples with whatever sounds good! I love the taste of raisins stewed in apple juice so I put in about a tablespoon of raisins into each apple (maybe less depending on the size of the apple and how large of a hole you cut), and then poured on another 1/2 teaspoon of honey and a bit more than a tablespoon of scotch. Replace the tops and put it on the top rack for about 30 minutes (more if you want them really mushy and falling apart -- after 30 minutes they're well-baked but still maintain some firmness).

They'll come out [not pictured] looking a bit like an old lady who's been in a tub too long [also not pictured], but far more appetizing. Serve with whipped cream or ice cream or just on its own. Probably best when still hot, but I still love it even when it's gotten pretty cool.

Variants
Make it more autumny/wintry by adding spices: heat some cinnamon sticks and cloves (rolled into a cheesecloth or in a spice bag or something so you don't have bits in your teeth later) in a bit of cider. Add honey/liquor/raisins/etc as before, and pour it all in.

Moist Banana (or pumpkin!) Bread

I have been meaning to post this recipe for a long time. It has never served me wrong! One day maybe I will remember to take a picture before eating the banana bread, but it's unlikely. :) Though now (October 2014) I've actually managed to take a photo of the pumpkin variation before eating it, so here it is:

As a warning, start checking the bread after 45 minutes. Sometimes I need a full hour, but usually it's more like 50 minutes. On the other hand, be careful not to lose too much heat from the oven by checking too often, or it'll be dry by the time it's finally baked through. Once you've gotten to know your oven, just use your judgement!

Ingredients

3/4 to 1 cup brown sugar 

1/2 cup butter, melted

2 eggs

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/4 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon baking soda

1 - 1.5 cups flour (depending on your preference)

3-4 very ripe bananas, mashed - if using frozen, defrost fully beforehand 

Preheat oven to 375F and grease a loaf pan. Blend together first four ingredients (mixing vigorously with a fork is fine). In a separate bowl, sift together the dry ingredients. Pour the dry ingredients into the wet ones and mix lightly (do not overmix). Fold in the bananas. Pour mixture into loaf pan and bake for 45-60 minutes.

Variations

1. Try adding 1/2 cup of chopped nuts and/or dried fruits.
2. Make it gluten free: replace the 1.5 cups of flour with 1.5 cups of gluten free flour (as always, I recommend Gluten Free Mama's Almond Blend) and add about 1/2 teaspoon of xanthan gum. If you don't have xanthan gum, that's fine -- the bread will come out a little flatter and more dense, but no less delicious.
3. Pumpkin bread! Replace the bananas with a can of (unsweetened, unflavored) pureed pumpkin.

How to make dipping chocolate

This might seem silly, because chocolate is an easy thing to melt. And in the technical sense, I agree -- it's easy to turn solid chocolate into liquid chocolate. But depending on your intended use, you can use the melting process to bring out all the delicious hidden flavors lurking behind that rich chocolatey goodness...

Whether you're dipping strawberries, truffles, biscotti, or just your fingers, the basics for making good dipping chocolate are:

1. Chocolate, and
2. Butter
   

Some recipes call for using shortening instead of butter, but I haven't seen any advantage to doing so. I prefer butter because it's something I always have on hand, whereas shortening might require a trek so deep into the back of the pantry that I may never find my way out again. So here's what you do:

Use about a tablespoon of butter for every half cup of chocolate. Melt everything in a double boiler, stirring occasionally with a wooden spoon. [By the way, a double boiler is a bona fide uni-tasker. You don't need to go out and buy a double boiler -- just take a metal mixing bowl or any small saucepan, put it on top of a bigger saucepan which has some water in it, and bring the water to a boil. Then put all whatever you're melting into the mixing bowl or small saucepan on top.]

1. Chocolate-dipped fruit
   If you're making chocolate-dipped strawberries or whatever other fruit has caught your fancy (have you tried chocolate-dipped prunes? no, seriously -- apparently that's a thing that some people love), you probably want to keep the dipping chocolate as simple as possible. For this, just butter and chocolate will do.
   
   
2. Dipping something nutty
   Maybe you're trying to add a chocolate layer to some biscotti, or maybe you're dipping truffles. Maybe you're just dipping nuts themselves for a quick & easy but still somewhat decadent dessert. Either way, the chocolate can be much richer this way. Exciting! So here are the ingredients for melting in the double boiler.

1/2 cup dark chocolate*
1/2 tsp. instant coffee
1-2 Tbsp. butter
pinch of salt

* Sometimes I use unsweetened baking chocolate and sometimes a dark chocolate bar, whichever is on hand. Taste the chocolate mixture when it melts and add sweetener and whatever else until it suits you.

Cleaning tip
When everything in sight is chocolate-dipped and you have produced delicious dessert to your heart's content, you might notice the gross sticky mess you've created in your double boiler. Scrape off any remaining bits of chocolate from the bottom of the bowl (though why would there be any chocolate left?!) and fill dirty bowl with water. Heat up the water (may as well use the saucepan/mixing bowl as a double boiler again), which will liquefy the left-over chocolate gunk and make it much easier to clean up.

Custard Fruit Tart w/ Graham Cracker Crust

I was trying to come up with a nice culinary surprise last night for Asa while he was at his soccer game, and realized that custard is a double whammy -- he loves it, and I've never tried making it before! So I looked up a bunch of different recipes, took the elements of each that seemed nicest, and hacked something together that actually turned out quite delicious, and extremely easy.

Graham cracker crust: I roughly used this recipe, but had to change around the proportions a bit and add a little extra flavor. I made enough to fill one round 8" cake pan and a small heart-shaped pie tin (see photo), so a little more than if you're just making one pie.

Ingredients
2.5 cups crushed graham crackers (I used "honey graham crackers" to good effect)
~3/8 cup sugar
10 Tbsp. melted butter
3/4 tsp. cinnamon
1/8 tsp. nutmeg (optional)
1/8 tsp. allspice (optional)

Directions (Graham cracker crust)
Preheat oven to 375F. Crumble up graham crackers in a bowl. I mostly did this by crushing them between my fingers, and then used the back of a large wooden spoon to mush them up more finely. It's OK if it isn't all a fine powder by the end, so long as there are no large pieces.

Add in sugar, butter, and spices. Blend together until the mixture has an even consistency throughout. Spread evenly in the cake pan (no need to grease it beforehand). I did this slowly, patting the mixture down firmly with my fingers, in order to get it to be spread evenly. Make sure you have enough to go up the sides of the cake pan, as well.

Bake on top rack of oven for 5-6 minutes. Remove and let it cook for a while. After it was no longer scalding hot, I relocated the tins to the fridge so that they'd be chillin' while I made the custard.

Custard: This turned out to be pretty easy! I forget which recipe I used most heavily of the ones I found online, but I make no claims to having completely invented this one:

Ingredients (Custard)
2 egg yolks
1/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 cup milk

Directions (Custard)
To separate yolks from whites: crack egg over a cup, and pour yolks from one half of the shell to the other, letting the whites (clear goop at this point) pour down into the cup. When most of it is off the yolk, throw the yolk into a bowl. Repeat with the other egg.

Whisk together yolks, sugar, flour until the mixture has an even consistency. (1/4 cup sugar makes a pretty sweet custard. If you want it to be less sweet, vary sugar amount accordingly.) It's going to look kind of dry at this point, but that's alright.

Now heat up milk in a saucepan until it's too hot for you to comfortably hold your finger in it for more than a second or two. Slowly pour it in to the mixture while whisking together. At this point it's like thick milk with clumps in it.

Pour mixture into saucepan and add vanilla. Stir it slowly while heating over low heat. After 2-3 minutes, it should start getting pretty solid. When it's the consistency you like, take it off the heat.

Spoon the custard onto your pie crust(s), and smooth out the top with a spatula. Place a sheet of plastic wrap directly onto the surface of the custard, and pat it down a little bit so that it's firmly on there. (The point of this is to keep a gross film from forming.) Return the filled pie crust(s) to the fridge at this point to give the custard a chance to cool down.

To top it off nicely, chop up whatever fruits you want for a topping (kiwis and strawberries make for a beautiful tart -- sadly I had no strawberries this time). Heat up some light-colored jam (I used apricot) over low heat, stirring it to keep it from sticking to the bottom of the saucepan and burning, until it's pretty liquid. Remove the tarts from your fridge, take off the plastic wrap, and place your fruits on top of the tart (it looks nicest, I think, if they're all in one layer, but that's up to you). Brush the liquified jam over the tart evenly, and chill the tart. If you want to eat it right away, just stick it in the freezer for a couple of minutes and the jam will cool down right away.

EAT!

It was late, so we didn't attack the big one, which stayed in the fridge with plastic wrap on the custard. I like having a lot of custard in my fruit tarts, so the next day I added another layer of custard to the big fruit tart, this time with no vanilla to cut down on the vanilla taste.