Posts Tagged "Fruit"
Apple Pear Galette with Jarlsberg Cheese {Gluten-Free}
Desserts and breakfast treats have, by far been the hardest items for me to replicate in a gluten-free version. They also are the things that MarocBaba misses the most. I think we all miss it. I haven’t felt like it’s fair to enjoy these treats when I know he can’t. Instead I’ve been flexing all of the culinary skills I can muster to try and make gluten-free copies. There used to be a bakery in our town that had the most amazing French pastries including an apricot galette that I went crazy for. I had some free time one weekend, lots of apples and pears in my fridge that needed to be used, and a fresh stock of gluten free flours on hand. There was only one thing to be done – BAKE!
Ingredients
Crust
2 cups coconut flour
1 cup almond flour
11/2 Tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp xantham gum
1 stick or 4oz of cold butter cut into cubes
2 tbsp vegetable shortening
1/4 c Jarlsberg cheese grated finely
1/4 c ice water
Filling
2 apples peeled, cored and sliced thinly
2 pears (use a firm variety) peeled, cored and sliced thinly
2 Tbsp cornstarch
1/4 cup sugar
2 Tbsp lemon juice
A few shakes of cinnamon (add it to your taste – we’re not big fans)
To Make the Crust
Add the coconut flour, almond flour, xantham gum, sugar and salt to a food processor. Begin to pulse and add the butter and vegetable shortening. Continue to pulse until there are no large pieces left and the dough looks like bread crumbs. Mix in the grated Jarlsberg cheese and slowly add the water just until the dough comes together.
Warp the dough in plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least two hours but up to 24 hours.
To Make the Filling
Preheat oven to 400F
Mix the apples and pears with the cornstarch to ensure that all of the apples are coated. Then add the lemon juice, cinnamon, sugar and mix well.
Remove dough from the fridge and divide into four equal parts. You also could make one very large galette. Allow the dough to warm up a little. Lightly dust a cutting board with coconut flour or almond flour and press out the dough. I found that using a rolling pin caused the dough to stick too much. You will want to create a round disc shape.
In the middle of the disc layout the apple/pear mixture. You can lay it out in a circular design or just pile in the fruit – either way it tastes great!
Fold up the edges of the galette. It WILL NOT cover the full top of the pastry – it’s not supposed to. If the dough buckles or even crumbles a little bit it’s ok. This is a rustic pastry.
Slide each galette onto a baking sheet that it will not stick to. I like to use a silpat liner when baking things like this to ensure it does not stick. A sheet lined with parchment paper will also work.
Once all galettes are ready to bake, place in the oven for 20 minutes and check. The crust should be a toasted brown color and the fruit soft when you poke with a fork or knife. If they are not done at this point, continue checking every 5 minutes. Be careful not to overcook – gluten-free dough is unforgiving when overcooked – you will have galette dog biscuits!
Allow the pastry to cool some before serving. I think these taste best when warm. You can top them with some more Jarlsberg cheese for an added bite!
It might seem odd to use cheese in a crust but I think it’s a great addition to a gluten-free baked item. One of the things that I have struggled with when baking gluten-free is that the consistency is either too dense like a cake or too crumbly and not binding together. Xantham gum helps to bind together the flours but the cheese in this recipe helps to stick the dough together! It also adds another flavor. Jarlsberg cheese has a mild and nutty swiss flavor. It’s not overpowering like a cheddar might be but it has enough of a tang to give a really nice flavor when paired with a flour like almond. I’ve also thought of recreating this and laying a layer of cheese on the bottom inside of the pastry. You can find more great recipes using this cheese on the Jarlsberg blog (where I played around for recipe ideas before making this!)
I am entering this recipe to win a scholarship from Jarlsberg to attend Eat, Write, Retreat 2012 in Washington DC. I was not compensated in anyway for this post and all opinions are my own. I’ve been eating Jarlsberg cheese for years and this opportunity in no way reflects my opinions of the product.
Pin It Read MoreGrilled Peaches & Marscapone with Honey and Almonds
It seems like Ramadan has gone as fast as it crept up. Today is the last day of fasting . This week M starts 2nd grade and MarocBaba is back at school too. I’m looking forward to a more regular schedule but it’s only a few weeks before we take off again for Morocco. I’ve been busy planning for the trip, making sure to make the most out of every second. I hope to come back with lots of new information, recipes, photos, and highlights of our trip to share.
The recipe I’m sharing today I’ve been dying to share since I first made it. This was the first time I’d ever tried grilling fruit, mostly because we have always had a charcoal grill and I just didn’t think that the charcoal taste would work with fruit. I made them instead in a grill pan. You could certainly make them on any outdoor grill as well.
Ingredients:
- 2 peaches halved, pits removed
- 4 oz marscapone cheese
- chopped almonds (or any nut)
- 4+ tsp honey
- Grill or grill pan
Halve two peaches and remove the pits. You may also want to scrape out the pit area in case there are any hard bits left behind.
Place the peaches flesh side down into the grill pan or onto a regular grill. Do not move them around. They will need to cook for about 5 minutes to soften up and for the sugars of the fruit to caramelize. Remove them from heat with the grill side up. Scoop about 1 tbsp of marscapone into the middle of each fruit.
You will need to work quickly because the heat of the peaches will begin to melt the cheese. As soon as the cheese is in top with chopped almonds and drizzle warm honey all over the top. The amount is up to you. Serve and eat immediately. Having eaten one hot and one just lukewarm — you’ll want to eat it hot!
This is a very fast and easy dessert that looks a lot more complicated than it is. It can be done with any stone fruit (like plums, nectarines, or apricots) Feel free to mix up the toppings as well. I’m already envisioning apricots and pistachios in my future.
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Read MoreBlueberry Cheese Pudgy Pies
Over the weekend we spent a lot of much needed time with family, enjoying each other and being outside. I even took a technology break. I rarely checked my phone, wasn’t emailing or checking in anywhere. It really was a great vacation. One of the things that we did was to visit my dad at his campsite. MarocBaba is not a camper. I’ve tried and tried to talk him into tenting but he refuses. My dad doesn’t camp with a tent but a pretty nice camper, that includes beds, a kitchen and air conditioning. Even with this MarocBaba was pretty sure he wouldn’t spend the night. So a day trip was as good as it got.
Is there anything better than cooking over a real fire? I don’t think so. We made an easy dinner, the kids had fun and no one freaked out about germs, bugs, dirt, dust and all else that is outside. My piece de resistance was a blueberry cheese pudgy pie. If you’re not of the camping set, a pudgy pie is a sandwich — made in a contraption that looks like this;
As I was creating my dessert pie everyone told me it was going to be disgusting. It was awesome and I made everyone eat some just so they too would know how awesome it was!!
Ingredients
- 2 pieces of bread
- spoonful of blueberry pie filling
- 1-2 tbsp cream cheese
- handful of mozzerella cheese
French Fridays: Strawberry Lemonade Tart
The first time I tried to make a tart the crust melted into a complete and utter mess and the cream that was supposed to go inside turned rock hard on the outside and raw on the inside. It was a failure of epic proportions. Undeterred I set out to give it a go again, this time putting together a dessert for Memorial Day. This time I felt down-right June Cleaver-ish. I knew that going to Dorie Greenspan’s recipe for pãte sablée wouldn’t let me down. As for the filling – I didn’t have enough eggs to do a traditional lemon curd. But thanks to my new vegan friend (Hi Christina!) from Eat, Write, Retreat I figured there must be an egg-less curd online. I was right, and I really think it was better than a curd with eggs.
I will never buy a tart crust again. This was easy and aside from the time that it needs to chill out in the fridge – pretty low intensity. The flavor is really amazing. It’s got a bit of a bite but is just the right softness and density – cookie meets pie. I should add Dorie’s recipe uses powdered sugar, I used regular sugar because apparently I can’t read. Good news – still turned out awesome. The family declared they would like to just eat the crust alone – but there wasn’t even a crumb of the tart left by the time we went home.
Pãte Sablée
Ingredients
- 1-1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1 stick plus 1 tablespoon (9 tablespoons) cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
- 1 large egg
Directions (from Global Gourmet)
Cut the flour, sugar and salt in a food processor and pulse a couple of times to combine. Scatter the pieces of butter over the dry ingredients and pulse until the butter is coarsely cut in—you should have some pieces the size of oatmeal flakes and some the size of peas. Stir the egg, just to break it up, and add it a little at a time, pulsing after each addition. When the egg is in, process in long pulses—about 10 seconds each—until the dough, which will look granular soon after the egg is added, forms clumps and curds. Just before you reach this stage, the sound of the machine working the dough will change—heads up. Turn the dough out onto a work surface and, very lightly and sparingly, knead the dough just to incorporate any dry ingredients that might have escaped mixing.
To press the dough into the pan: Butter a 9-inch fluted tart pan with a removable bottom. Press the dough evenly over the bottom and up the sides of the pan, using all but one little piece of dough, which you should save in the refrigerator to patch any cracks after the crust is baked. Don’t be too heavy-handed—press the crust in so that the edges of the pieces cling to one another, but not so hard that the crust loses its crumbly texture. Freeze the crust for at least 30 minutes, preferably longer, before baking.
To partially or fully bake the crust: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 375 degrees F.
Butter the shiny side of a piece of aluminum foil and fit the foil, buttered side down, tightly against the crust. (Since you froze the crust, you can bake it without weights.) Put the tart pan on a baking sheet and bake the crust for 25 minutes. Carefully remove the foil. If the crust has puffed, press it down gently with the back of a spoon. For a partially baked crust, patch the crust if necessary, then transfer the crust to a cooling rack (keep it in its pan).
To fully bake the crust: Bake for another 8 minutes or so, or until it is firm and golden brown. (I dislike lightly baked crusts, so I often keep the crust in the oven just a little longer. If you do that, just make sure to keep a close eye on the crust’s progress—it can go from golden to way too dark in a flash.) Transfer the tart pan to a rack and cool the crust to room temperature before filling.
To patch a partially or fully baked crust, if necessary: If there are any cracks in the baked crust, patch them with some of the reserved raw dough as soon as you remove the foil. Slice off a thin piece of the dough, place it over the crack, moisten the edges and very gently smooth the edges into the baked crust. If the tart will not be baked again with its filling, bake for another 2 minutes or so, just to take the rawness off the patch.
Lemon Curd (from Group Recipes)
- 1/4 c. cold water
- 1/2 c. sugar
- 3 Tbs. cornstarch
- 1/4 c. fresh lemon juice
- 2 tsp. finely grated lemon zest
- Pinch of salt
Directions
- In a saucepan, whisk together water, sugar, cornstarch, and salt until cornstarch is dissolved.
- Bring mixture to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring constantly. When mixture thickens.
- Reduce heat to low and cook for another minute, stirring constantly.
- Pour mixture into a non-metallic bowl and add lemon juice and zest, mixing well.
- Allow to cool and thicken at room temperature.
- Can be refrigerated, covered, for several days. Before serving, beat thoroughly to a smooth, spreadable consistency.
To bring together – allow crust to cool, and then spread lemon curd on top. Arrange strawberries in an attractive pattern or toss a bunch on haphazard! Keep refrigerated until ready to eat.
The Food that Soothes: Couscous for Breakfast
I’d be lying if I didn’t tell you I am a little nervous posting this recipe. You see, until this weekend I never realized the level of reverence Moroccans have for couscous. It’s the “national dish” of Morocco and in a recent Twitter conversation I was shocked to discover Moroccans take offense to the term “Israeli couscous”. To me it’s semantics but apparently not so – the crux of the argument was that there is no such thing as any couscous other than the Moroccan version and anyone that says otherwise is trying to steal a part of Moroccan culture. I think this is a hard concept for an American whose culture is influenced by hundreds of different ethnic and cultural groups that call my country home.
So maybe you can see why I am a little nervous to share a breakfast couscous. I’ll just disclaim this: This is not a traditional Moroccan couscous, nor something anyone in Morocco would probably make. Heck I didn’t even steam the couscous I used the instant version. But guess what, it’s good. It’s really good. I’ve never liked breakfast preferring to eat a bowl of pasta before grabbing an egg or cereal. This was perfect for me.
Ingredients
- 1c of quick cooking couscous
- 3-4 dates chopped
- blueberries or other seasonal fruit
- almonds chopped
- 1/2 c heavy cream
- 1/4c milk (whatever you have)
- 1 tsp brown sugar
Directions
Cook couscous according to package directions. When cooked, add the cream and milk slowly leaving the burner on low heat. Make sure to stir while adding the milk to separate the couscous grains. Once all of the milk is combined, add in the brown sugar, dates, almonds and blueberries. You can certainly add more or less of any of the items depending on your taste and wants. This is best eaten hot.
French Fridays with Dorie: Marie Helene’s Apple Cake
I’ve always wanted a really good cookbook with easy French recipes. I’ve tried a few recipes here and there, but most of them were time consuming and honestly a little intimidating. I stumbled across this cooking club and thought well that looks like something I could do. I am so glad that I did. Honestly this cookbook is fantastic. It has beautiful pictures and a really wide range of recipes that are easy. I’ve got mine bookmarked to the hilt! The recipe for this week was Marie Helene’s Apple Cake. When I first looked through the cookbook this recipe immediately caught my eye, and it was a great recipe to start with. I won’t be sharing the whole recipe here, but giving some highlights. I highly recommend getting the book; Around My French Table: More Than 300 Recipes from My Home to Yours
It’s the tail-end of the apple season here in the Midwest but that means I scored some great deals on apples. The recipe cites a mixture of apples as being the best and so that’s what I did.
All it takes are a few simple ingredients, eggs, butter, sugar, and the like. The original recipe also called for rum, but as we are halal household I omitted it and increased the amount of vanilla. I finally had a good reason to use the Mexican pure vanilla extract my mom bestowed on me! 
Everything gets mixed up and placed into a spring form pan. I topped mine with crushed almond powder.
Bake for about an hour and….
Ta daaa! Mine is a little more brown because of the almonds but the flavor it gave was really a warm, toasty, nutty flavor. 
I whipped this up last night and couldn’t wait to dig in but…I got sick. This morning I knew I couldn’t post my pictures and story without tasting it so guess what I had for breakfast….apple cake! I warmed it up a little bit and mixed some Greek yogurt with powdered sugar on the side. It was fantastic. I don’t even like apple pie but this was out of this world, and the yogurt made me feel like it wasn’t so bad to have it for breakfast.
I can’t wait for next week! If you want to find more pictures of this week’s recipe or to join in on the fun come visit!
Beghrir with Nutella and Wild Raspberries
I think one of my very favorite Moroccan foods is beghrir. They are light airy pancakes that are cooked only on one side and are incredibly versatile. I have toyed with the idea of making them savory instead of sweet something like an accompaniment to moo shu chicken (since we don’t do pork). It hasn’t happened yet but it’s on the back burner! For now I will stick with the sweet version.
One of the great things about living in the Midwest is wild fruit. It’s that time of summer where the bushes are full of wild raspberries, huckleberries, thimble berries, blackberries, blueberries, and soon to come pears and apples. I remember that picking wild fruit was a big part of my childhood and I spent a lot of time with my grandpa and my dad picking fruit. This past week I was in Upper Michigan with my grandparents and found the raspberries and blueberries in full bloom. I can’t take credit for the raspberries as my cousin and uncle picked those but the blueberries I did help with! (I’ll be sharing a recipe for almond blueberry scones with those soon!)
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Onto the beghrir. I’ve always struggled with the consistency of this batter. It’s a difficult thing to get right. This time I used this recipe from Dinners and Dreams with a few minor changes. It was simple and had a great result.
Ingredients:
2 cups fine semolina or cornmeal (preferably semolina)
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 tbsp dry yeast
¼ teaspoon baking powder
½ teaspoon salt
½ teaspoon sugar
1 egg
1 cup milk, warm but comfortable to the touch
2 cups water, warm but comfortable to the touch
Directions:
s="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: small;">Mix all of the ingredients together and beat until blended well. I didn’t use a blender just a wire wisk and mixed until it started to form a lot of bubbles. Allow it to rest 20-30 minutes. Heat a non stick skillet on medium heat until hot, I add a little butter on the first batch to make sure the pan is ready. Cook on one side until the exposed side is full of little bubbles and dry. These pancakes only cook on one side. Traditionally they are served with honey butter but I used nutella and rolled them up and served with some raspberries and a sprinkle of powdered sugar.
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