In the few days I had at home last weekend I managed to catch the very beginning of red currant season. Red currants are still fairly uncommon in the US. Astringent and seedy, I can see why they don’t fit in with the sugar-sweet raspberries and mellow blueberries we favor, but I’d like to make a case for them. Firstly, they’re beautiful – translucent globes that shine with red juice. They freeze well – and when frozen they make the most satisfying marble sound as you drop them into a glass bowl. They also add an acidic complexity to otherwise saccharine fruit desserts.

I was worried the currants might be overripe by the time I returned from my trip to Asia. I wanted to make sure I could use at least a few in a new recipe, so I picked the reddest of the bunch. With them (and some frozen ones leftover from last year), I made a Red Currant Crème Brûlée, inspired in equal parts by dinner at ForettaBarinn last week in Iceland, where I had a delicious rhubarb crème brûlée, and by Nigel Slater’s beautiful cookbook, Ripe. Trevor has promised to watch over the rest of the berries and optimize their harvest so that I can enjoy as many as possible when I get back home.

Sometimes when people ask me what my favorite food is, I tell them that it’s cream. This is only partially a joke. Accordingly, crème brûlée is one of my all-time favorite desserts, and it can be very difficult for me to not order it. Luckily (dangerously?) it’s very easy to make at home – just a simple custard of egg, cream, and sugar, gently baked in a bain marie.

This particular crème brûlée – with a layer of homemade red currant jam on the bottom – was exceptional. The sweet, silky smooth custard just barely punctuated by bursts of tart red currant jelly, the crackling burnt sugar crust – it’s more than the sum of its parts, for sure. I only wish I hadn’t inadvertently calculated the nutrition facts when pouring all two cups of lovely cream into the bowl. If I hadn’t known, I would have eaten more.

I didn’t remove the seeds from my homemade red currant jam because I don’t mind them. But if you want a really smooth jam, strain the jelly through a fine mesh strainer after simmering. You can also use store-bought red currant jelly if you don’t have any of your own fresh currants around.

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More Red Currant Recipes…

Red Currant Crumb Bars

Red Currant Kompot

Red Currant Chutney

Red Currant Crème Brûlée

A fruit-on-the-bottom version of Crème Brûlée using a thin layer of homemade red currant jam. 

Inspired by Nigel Slater’s Ripe and the crème brûlée at Forettabarinn.

• Author: Katie at the Kitchen Door

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups fresh or frozen red currants, stems removed
• 1/3 cup plus 6 TBS of sugar, divided, plus more for caramelizing the tops of the custards
• 1 TBS raspberry liqueur
• 2 cups of heavy cream
• 1/2 vanilla bean
• 4 large egg yolks

Instructions

1. For the red currant jam: Combine the red currants, 6 TBS of sugar, and the raspberry liqueur in a small saucepan. Lightly crush some of the currants with the back of a wooden spoon to release their juices. Bring to a simmer over medium-low heat. Simmer until the currants have burst and softened and the sauce has thickened to the consistency of a thin jelly (it will continue to thicken as it cools). This should take about 10-15 minutes. Remove from the heat. If a very smooth jam is desired, strain through a fine-mesh strainer while still hot, discarding the seeds. I prefer to use it un-strained. Set jam aside and let cool to room temperature.
2. For the crème brûlée: Preheat the oven to 325F. Place the cream in a clean, medium-sized saucepan. Carefully slice the vanilla bean in half lengthwise and use a small spoon to scrape the vanilla seeds into the cream. Add the vanilla bean to the cream as well. Heat cream over low heat until it just reaches a slight simmer, stirring the cream frequently to prevent a skin from forming. Once it reaches a simmer, immediately remove from the heat and let steep for 4-5 minutes. After 5 minutes, use a spoon to remove the vanilla bean.
3. In a large, heatproof bowl, whisk the egg yolks and the remaining 1/3 cup of sugar together until the egg yolks are pale in color and the sugar is mostly dissolved. While continuing to whisk the yolks, pour the warm cream over the egg and sugar mixture. Whisk until very well combined.
4. Divide the red currant jam between four 6-oz ramekins, spreading the jam out so there is a thin layer on the bottom of each ramekin. Carefully pour the cream mixture over the top of the jam, doing your best not to mix the jam and the cream. Place the filled ramekins in a large, high-sided baking dish or casserole. Carefully fill the baking dish with very hot water so that the water reaches halfway up the sides of the ramekins. Don’t get any water inside the ramekins! Carefully transfer the baking dish to the preheated oven. Bake until the centers of the custards are just barely set – they should still jiggle slightly when the dish is moved – about 45-55 minutes. Remove from the oven and let cool completely, then remove the ramekins from the  baking dish, cover with plastic wrap, and chill for at least 2 hours.
5. Just prior to serving, remove the chilled crème brûlées from the fridge. Spoon a thin, even layer of sugar over the top of each custard. Use a pastry torch to caramelize the sugar until it is melted and browned all over, forming a thin crust on the top of each crème brûlée (here’s a video to help!). Serve immediately.

Notes

You will need a pastry torch and 6-oz oven-safe ramekins for this recipe.

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A few weeks back, on a chilly Saturday afternoon, I packed up big bags of food, table settings, and wine, and brought everything to my parents’ house for a little harvest dinner party. The theme of the dinner was Pumpkin + Chardonnay, and I worked with the people over at La Crema Wines to pick out the best chardonnay pairings for each of the three recipes we created. There was no particular reason for hosting this dinner other than a desire to create something lovely to look at, an excuse to drink too much wine, and a way to use up the squash from the garden that have been lingering on our windowsill.

The first course was a simple Grilled Pumpkin and Raw Kale Salad, dressed with lemon and olive oil and served with a big slice of creamy camembert. To pair with the salad, we served the La Crema Monterey Chardonnay, which is rich and buttery and played beautifully with the funkiness of the cheese and the bitterness of the greens. While grilled squash and chardonnay might sound like a summery pairing, everything about this course was pungent, savory, and rich, setting just the right tone for kicking off our harvest dinner.

Next, we moved on to the main course – Mini-Stuffed Pumpkins with Middle-Eastern Spiced Beef and Israeli Couscous, paired with La Crema’s Sonoma Coast Chardonnay, which is a bit brighter and fruitier than the Monterey. Rather than the more traditional cheese/sausage/bread filling used in many stuffed pumpkin recipes, I opted for stuffing them with a tagine-like mixture of sweetly spiced, stewed beef, dried fruit, nuts, and Israeli couscous. The beef itself is hands down the best beef I’ve ever made. After numerous almost-but-not-quite-delicious preparations of short ribs and other fatty cuts and roasts, I finally had the fall-apart-tender, deeply savory, saucy, non-greasy beef of my dreams. And now I want to make it over and over again, in different flavors and served over different starches until I’m tired of it.

We wrapped things up with individual servings of Pumpkin-Vanilla Pot de Creme, creamy, gently spiced little puddings served with a generous dollop of maple whipped cream. The last bottle to be opened was the La Crema Russian River Valley, a honeyed chardonnay with slight echos of the baking spices used in the pot de cremes. At this point we were all full and happy and a little bit tipsy, lingering over the last creamy spoonfuls of pudding and sips of wine.

I perhaps went overboard in styling the table, but it was so much fun to shoot. There’s inspiration to be found in making something beautiful just for the sake of beauty. I wanted to capture the lovely colors of the last burst of foliage as the backdrop, enhancing them with oranges and reds and creamy colors on the table. Truth be told, it was a little cold for sitting outside for long, so we quickly moved the set-up inside by the fire, but the atmosphere was just as lovely indoors. In New England the foliage is mostly past, now, but I hope to make this sort of outdoor harvest dinner a tradition to look forward to at the peak of each fall season.

To see more pictures and notes from this dinner, check out the three companion posts and recipes over on the La Crema Blog!

Course #1: Grilled Pumpkin and Raw Kale Salad
Course #2: Mini-Stuffed Pumpkins with Middle-Eastern Spiced Beef and Israeli Couscous
Course #3: Pumpkin-Vanilla Pot de Cremes

This is a sponsored conversation written by me on behalf of La Crema. The opinions and text are all mine.

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We have a fridge! A fridge with a freezer! Which means: it’s high time for the summer’s first batch of homemade ice cream. Beyond high time, if we’re being truthful, as it’s been more than a year since I made a batch of ice cream. And the last batch was a really good one, too, so it didn’t last more than a week. Plus, I consider having enough time to make at least one batch of homemade ice cream per summer to be an essential indicator of sanity.

This particular ice cream is one that I’ve been mulling over for more than 2 years. It’s loosely based on this incredible Strawberry Sour Cream Ice Cream, which is still the best ice cream I’ve ever made. Adding cultured dairy products, like sour cream or cheese, to the ice cream base ensures that it is extra thick and sets up really nicely when frozen, which can be a problem with homemade ice creams. Using sour cream or goat cheese also adds a delicious tang to offset the sweetness of the ice cream.

Since I knew that I wanted to try a recipe similar to the original that used goat cheese in place of the sour cream, we get an abundance of blackberries from our bushes every year, and blackberries and goat cheese and red wine are a great combination on a cheese platter, I decided that those three elements were the basis for what was sure to be a delicious dessert. The ice cream base would be a sweet goat cheese custard with a hint of vanilla, and the blackberries and red wine would enter the picture via a sweet and jammy swirl of fruit sauce. I added a splash of balsamic to the blackberry-red wine component for a little extra depth. The result was everything I imagined, and just as good as the strawberry sour cream version. It’s a good thing I made this 2 days before leaving for a week, or it would already be gone.

I also wanted to use this celebration of our new freezer to take a minute to share the first pictures (and progress!) of our new house. When we knew we were buying the house I had grand plans of becoming a design blogger and documenting all the cool DIY updates we did to the house. But, considering that I seem to be barely managing to find the time to be a food blogger, I suppose I should probably stick with what I know for now. So here’s the summary version, at least as far as the kitchen is concerned…

We started with a kitchen that is basically a blank slate: linoleum floors, cheap cabinets that have seen better days, yellow walls, ancient appliances, and plenty of space. Since the day we moved in we have 1) replaced the dishwasher and fridge with modern, stainless steel versions; 2) removed some of the counters and cabinets and replaced them with these sweet industrial DIY pipe shelves; 3) added a temporary kitchen island and stools; 4) refinished one of the walls and repainted it to a dolphiny gray; 5) added an awkwardly bulky washer and dryer that we can’t wait to move to the basement. We’re also in the process of continuing to replace the upper cabinets with shelves to match the pipe shelving, replacing the disposal, and swapping out the kitchen sink and faucet. Where we are now is certainly not our dream kitchen, but we are at least getting to the point where it feels usable and friendly – good enough until we’ve saved up enough to remodel for real. And good enough to make delicious ice cream!

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Goat Cheese Ice Cream with Blackberry Red Wine Swirl

Inspired by the NYTimes. Makes about 1 1/2 quarts.

• 7 egg yolks
• 1 1/3 c. sugar, divided
• 1 1/2 c. heavy cream
• 1/2 c. whole milk
• 8 oz. goat cheese
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 12 oz. fresh blackberries
• 1/3 c. red wine
• 2 TBS balsamic vinegar

1. Beat the egg yolks with 1/2 cup of the sugar in a heatproof bowl until smooth. Set aside. Place the heavy cream and whole milk in a medium saucepan and whisk in 1/2 cup of sugar. Whisking regularly, heat the cream mixture over medium heat just until bubbles begin to appear around the sides of the pan. Remove the cream from the heat.
2. Slowly drizzle the hot cream into the egg yolks, whisking the egg yolks vigorously as you do so. Once you’ve poured most of the cream into the egg yolks, pour the mixture back into the pan and return to the heat. Whisking constantly, heat the egg yolks until the mixture has thickened into a custard thick enough to coat the back of a spoon, which should take from 5-10 minutes. Remove from the heat.
3. Crumble the goat cheese into a large bowl. Strain the custard through a fine-mesh strainer into the bowl (to remove any bits of scrambled egg). Whisk the mixture until the goat cheese has fully melted into the custard. Stir in the vanilla. Let cool to room temperature, then cover the bowl with plastic wrap so that the plastic wrap touches the surface of the custard and refrigerate until cold, at least 3 hours.
4. In a medium saucepan, combine the blackberries, the remaining 1/3 c. sugar, the red wine, and the balsamic vinegar. Heat over medium heat, stirring frequently to prevent the bottom from burning, until thickened and bubbly, about 15 minutes. Mash the blackberries with the back of a wooden spoon so that the mixture has a jam like consistency. Refrigerate the mixture until cold.
5. To make the ice cream, churn the goat cheese custard in an ice cream maker according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Scrape half of the ice cream into a storage container in an even layer. Top with half of the blackberry mixture, then drag a knife through the two layers to create a swirl. Repeat with another layer of custard and another layer of blackberries. Freeze until solid, at least 2 hours.

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I have been craving a really good slice of key lime pie since January. It’s clearly not a particularly intense craving, or I would have found a way to get some pie long ago, but it’s there, in the background, every time I think about dessert (which is relatively often). The craving started when we unexpectedly got stuck in Miami during the first blizzard of this epic winter. I had a really incredible slice of key lime pie at a whole in the wall BBQ place during a work trip to Miami about a year ago, and now when I think of Miami, I think of that pie. A two day layover in Miami should have meant that getting some good pie was pretty easy, but it just didn’t happen (I did have a great Medianoche, though, so there’s that).

So, what better time to make something just for yourself than your birthday? I originally meant to make this the day before my birthday, as I was taking the day off to pamper myself, but I ended up spending most of the day out with my mom, and after a late lunch, making pie didn’t feel like the right choice. Saturday, after spending the morning at our house inspection (if that doesn’t make you feel old, I’m not sure what will), Trevor threw me a great birthday party – he did a really delicious BBQ pulled pork in the smoker, accompanied by mac’n’cheese, grilled sweet potatoes, and a towering homemade angel food cake with blueberry jam. Greatest boyfriend in the world, end of story. Sunday, somewhere between recovering from the night before (primarily by eating leftover mac’n’cheese for every meal) and beginning to worry about my trip to Colombia the next day, I decided that it was time for my birthday pie. So I whipped it up, and it was everything I wanted it to be. In the end, it’s probably good that I only had the chance to eat two slices before leaving.

Key lime pie is incredibly simple to make. The only thing it requires is the patience to squeeze 2 dozen tiny key limes by hand (or access to good quality fresh key lime juice). After that, all you do is mix up sweetened condensed milk with a few egg yolks (conveniently left over from the 24 egg whites required for the angel food cake your boyfriend makes for your birthday), stir in the lime juice, pour into a basic graham cracker crust, and bake. The condensed milk does most of the work of making key lime pie, well, key lime pie. I made a slight twist to the recipe by reserving some of the filling and mixing it with Meyer lemon juice, then using a few drops of food coloring to color the lime mixture green and the lemon part yellow, then swirling the two together. The result is mostly aesthetic, but if you don’t mind the extra step, I think it gives the pie a fun ’50s look.

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Key Lime and Meyer Lemon Swirl Pie

Key lime pie recipe adapted from Epicurious. Serves 8-10.

• 9 graham crackers
• 1/4 c. sugar
• 5 TBS butter, melted
• 1/4 tsp sea salt
• 1 (14 oz) can of sweetened condensed milk
• 5 egg yolks
• 9 TBS key lime juice, freshly squeezed (from about 20 key limes)
• 3 TBS Meyer lemon juice (from 1 lemon)
• yellow and green food coloring
• 1 c. heavy cream or whipping cream

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F, Place the graham crackers in a food processor or blender and process until finely crushed. Mix the crumbs with the sugar, melted butter, and sea salt, then press into a 9-inch round pie pan. Press the crust firmly into the bottom and up the sides using your fingertips. Bake the crust for 10 minutes, then remove from the oven and set aside.
2. In a large bowl, beat together the sweetened condensed milk and the egg yolks until fully combined. Scoop half a cup of the mixture into a separate bowl and set aside. Mix the lime juice with the batter in the first bowl (the larger amount) until evenly combined. Mix the lemon juice with the batter in the second bowl (the smaller amount) until evenly combined. Stir 2 drops of green food coloring into the lime batter and 4 drops of yellow food coloring into the lemon batter.
3. Pour the lime batter into the pre-baked pie crust. Carefully spoon the lemon batter into concentric circles on top of the lime batter. Use a knife to cut swirling patterns into the batter by running the knife from the center of the pie to the edge and back in again. Bake the pie for 15 minutes, then remove from the oven and let cool completely. Chill for at least 2 hours.
4. Before serving the pie, whip the cream into soft peaks. Decorate the pie with the whipped cream or spread a thick layer on top. Serve chilled.

The post Another Year, Another Birthday // Key Lime and Meyer Lemon Swirl Pie appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

I had really wanted to get a few more holiday-ish posts in before Christmas. There are so many great Christmas cookies and cakes and drinks to share! But when I found myself running around in the rain the morning of the 24th, scrambling to finish my shopping and get everything wrapped and packed for the weekend, I decided to cut myself some slack. I know that I’ve been needing a break – a real break, one where I leave my computer at home and don’t try to squeeze in a photo shoot here or there – and if you can’t take a true, unplugged break for 36 hours over Christmas, then you never will.

I think it worked – I woke up yesterday morning feeling more relaxed than I have in ages. I spent Christmas Eve sitting around the fire with Trevor and my parents and my brothers, noshing on smoked salmon, Swedish meatballs, roasted veggies, and sliders, sipping prosecco and eggnog in equally large quantities. It felt indulgent: four hours spent just sitting and eating and talking, with a little bit of book reading thrown in here and there. Christmas morning I woke up in my childhood bedroom to the sound of rain on the roof and Trevor sleeping next to me, with a pile of goodies in the stocking at the end of my bed. Brownies eaten in bed and a card detailing a surprise getaway to New York to see Les Mis preceded more presents under the tree, mimosas, and the most luxurious creme-fraiche scrambled eggs and slices of stollen slathered with butter. Then in the afternoon, my family and Trevor’s sat down together to share roast beef, yorkshire pudding, buttered cabbage, and meyer lemon tart before a sunset walk to a nearby farm and a little street football. It was wonderful.

I hope you all had lovely, relaxing Christmases, too, and are enjoying an equally relaxing long weekend. Do whatever you need to do to take care of yourself, and try not to let the joy and calm of the big day fade too quickly! And, although we’re just at the beginning of the holiday break, if you’re thinking ahead to New Year’s already, or are just looking forward to a few indulgent and lingering brunches over the next few weeks, I have two New Year’s Day brunch recipes for you. I partnered with La Crema Wines to develop these recipes for pairing with La Crema Monterey Chardonnay. The main event is a vegetarian wild mushroom strata: with a goat cheese and rosemary sauce, sauteed wild mushrooms, mashed roasted garlic, and tuscan kale simmered in chardonnay, the strata makes egg-soaked bread feel upscale and seasonal while still being absolutely craveable and satisfying. For dessert, a clementine and rosemary upside-down cake makes the most of juicy winter citrus in an easy and wonderfully pretty dessert. Since it’s un-frosted and not too sweet, serving this for brunch feels enough like serving coffee cake that you can get away with it. A hint of nutmeg in the cake batter punches up the wintery feeling, and enhances the sweet citrus and piney rosemary. Since the flavors of both dishes all work well together – orange, rosemary, mushrooms and goat cheese – and also all pair well with chardonnay, it’s a natural serving choice. You can find both recipes over on the La Crema blog. Here’s to long lazy mornings, dining in good company, and starting the new year off right!

Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by La Crema. All opinions are honest and my own.

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If halloween were a more elegant holiday than it is, this is what I would serve at halloween parties – smooth, silky creme brulee with a hint of roasted pumpkin and fall spices, topped with spicy garam masala pumpkin seeds. As it is, we’ll save this for fancier events and stick to the garish chocolate and peanut butter combinations tonight. I’m a creme brulee fiend – I can never resist ordering it for dessert when we’re out for dinner – so when Trevor made this amazing version at home he won me over all over again. This recipe is all him, so I’ll let him tell you its story…

A couple of months ago, when we started cutting into our very first home-grown Sugar Pie pumpkins, I decided I really wanted to do something besides endless pies with them. My first thought was ‘Oh! pumpkin creme brulee!’ The pumpkins we grew have a lot of natural sweetness, and would be perfect for a light creme brulee. A quick google, however, revealed that I wasn’t the first, or even the fifth person to think of it. The internet is full of pretty well-established pumpkin creme brulee recipes.

Demoralized, I decided to play with the flavors of roasted pumpkin seeds. Rather than salt and oil, I settled on the sweet, caramel-y flavors of Indian spices with a little kick. Cumin, masala, and chili powder paired nicely with the sweetness of the ginger and the nutty seed flavor. So I made these once, and they were gone in about a day, (mostly my fault).

I figured that the crunchy, crystallized seeds would be the perfect garnish for a bruleed crust, and would add a little something different to the pumpkin creme brulee recipes that were already out there. So with the seeds as a starting point, I threw some darker, intense spices into the milk while making the custard. Adding too much pumpkin to a creme brulee recipe is problematic for the final set of the custard, so the autumn flavor really has to come from the spices. The amounts aren’t enough to hit you over the head, but it’s definitely more than your classic vanilla bean dessert. It turned into a classy dessert with a little something extra, and I think it made Katie pretty happy. So it’s all good.

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Garam Masala Pumpkin Seeds

Makes 1 cup of seeds.

• 1 cup pumpkin seeds
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• ⅛ tsp cumin
• 1 tsp garam masala
• ⅛ tsp ginger
• ½ tsp chili powder
• 1 tsp sea salt
• 1 ½ tbsp canola oil

1. Preheat oven to 350°F. Combine sugar, salt and spices.
2. Combine pumpkin seeds and oil in a separate bowl, stirring to coat seeds completely. Add half of the sugar mixture to the seeds and stir to coat.
3. Spread the seeds evenly over  a baking sheet and bake for 30 min, stirring every 8-10 minutes, until the seeds just begin to brown, and become crunchy.
4. Before the seeds begin to cool, add the remaining sugar mixture, and stir to coat.

Pumpkin Creme Brulee

Serves 4. Adapted from The Fundamental Techniques of Classic Pastry Arts.

• 1 ½ cups heavy cream
• ½ cup whole milk
• ⅛ tsp ground ginger
• 3 whole cloves
• ⅛ tsp ground cardamom
• ⅛ tsp ground cinnamon
• ½ cup granulated sugar
• 4 egg yolks
• ¼ cup pumpkin puree
• 4 cups boiling water
• ⅓ cup white sugar (for sprinkling)
• ⅓ cup turbinado sugar (for sprinkling)

1. Preheat the oven to 325°F. Combine milk and cream along with the spices in a small sauce pan and heat over medium heat until the mixture begins to steam heavily and give off a nutty aroma. Do not let the mixture come to a boil.
2. Remove from heat and allow the milk to steep for 15 minutes. In a small bowl, combine the granulated sugar and egg yolks and whisk until smooth.
3. Strain the whole spices and any skin that formed from the milk mixture. Add the strained milk to the egg yolks and sugar, stirring constantly. Once combined, add the pumpkin puree and mix until smooth.
4. Divide the mixture between four creme brulee dishes, and set in a large baking dish. Fill the baking dish with boiling water so that the water reaches to just below the lip of the creme brulee dishes. Bake in the oven for 30-40min, checking after 30 minutes for done-ness. The custards should be firm, but jiggly. Refrigerate for 3 hours or overnight, covering with plastic wrap, but ensuring the wrap does not touch the surface of the custard.
5. Combine the two sprinkling sugars in a small bowl, and remove the dishes from the refrigerator, uncovering them carefully. Spread the sugars evenly in an ⅛” layer over the top of the custard, taking care not to disturb the surface.
6. Move a lit pastry torch over the surface of the creme brulee such that the tip of the blue flame is about 1 ½” away from the surface of the sugar. Keep the torch moving over the sugar until it begins to bubble slightly and turn a light brown.
7. Allow the sugar to cool. Sprinkle masala pumpkin seeds over the top and serve immediately.

The post Pumpkin Creme Brulee with Garam Masala Pumpkin Seeds appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

Anytime I have a particular ingredient that I’m looking to use I have a few cookbooks that I immediately pull off the (overloaded) shelf for recipe inspiration. Lucid Food, The Modern Vegetarian, Vegetable Literacy, and of course, Nigel Slater’s Tender and Ripe are on that list, since they’re all books that use fresh produce as the star of their recipes. For a project like this, the Slater books in particular are a gold mine of inspiration – first of all, they’re organized by ingredient, making it pretty easy to flip through ways of using up strawberries or onions. Secondly, they’re gorgeous, with enticing photographs, whimsical writing, and homey recipes that make you want to run to the kitchen.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise, then, that Ripe was the first place I turned when putting together my list of recipes for rhubarb week. Slater has eight rhubarb recipes included in the book, and seems to favor the pairings of rhubarb and cinnamon (like the cocktail I made yesterday! And kept drinking tonight…) and rhubarb and cream. I made his rhubarb and cinnamon polenta cake a little over a year ago, so this time I decided to go for the rhubarb and cream pairing, making this rhubarb custard fool with rhubarb syrup.

A fruit fool is an English dessert made by folding cooked fruit into a light custard or whipped cream. This particular fool recipe uses both custard and whipped cream, and is very light on the sugar, using only 3 TBS for 6 servings. It makes for a very different rhubarb eating experience – rather than the tangy sweet-tart flavor I’ve come to expect from rhubarb desserts, this simple dessert really focuses your palate on the mild taste and thick texture of the cream, and the bright sourness of the softened rhubarb. It’s a very restrained and elegant dessert. That being said, you fully have my permission to double the amount of sugar used in both the custard and the fruit if you have a sweet tooth as bad as mine (or if you’re just not feeling restrained). Since this made a big batch, I froze the leftovers to see how it translates into a semifreddo – I’ll let you know how that comes out, too.

Rhubarb Week Part One: Rhubarb-Prosecco Spritzer
Rhubarb Week Part Three: Recipe Round-Up from Around the Blogs
Rhubarb Week Part Four: Persian Rhubarb and Beef with Rice
Rhubarb Week Part Five: Rhubarb-Ginger Bars

Rhubarb Custard Fool

Recipe adapted slightly from Ripe. Serves 4-6.

Note: As written, this recipe is not very sweet. If you like sweeter desserts, increase the amount of sugar used in the custard to 2 TBS and use 4 TBS of sugar and 4 TBS of water in the rhubarb.

• 2 c. heavy cream, divided
• 2 egg yolks
• 3 TBS sugar, divided
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract
• 14 oz. fresh rhubarb, leaves removed
• 3 TBS water

1. Make the custard: heat 1 cup of the heavy cream in a small saucepan over medium-low heat, stirring frequently, until it has just begun to simmer. Immediately remove from the heat. In a small, heatproof bowl, vigorously whisk together the egg yolks and 1 TBS of the sugar, until yolks are pale yellow. Pour the hot cream into the egg mixture in a thin stream, whisking the eggs vigorously as you do so to temper the eggs. Pour the custard back into the saucepan and return to medium-low heat. Cook, stirring constantly, until custard is thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Remove from heat, strain through a fine mesh sieve into a clean bowl, and stir in vanilla. Cover tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for at least one hour.
2. Wash the rhubarb and slice into 1-inch lengths. Add the rhubarb, the water, and the remaining 2 TBS sugar to a medium saucepan and bring to a boil. Immediately turn down the heat and simmer the rhubarb gently until it is soft but not collapsing, about 4-6 minutes. Gently remove the rhubarb from the pan with a slotted spoon and place in a small bowl. Pour the leftover syrup into a separate small dish. Refrigerate both the fruit and the syrup until cool.
3. About half an hour before serving, whip the remaining 1 cup heavy cream until soft folds form. Fold in the chilled custard and the fruit. Spoon into glasses and refrigerate for 20-30 minutes. Serve with a drizzle of the rhubarb syrup.

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As promised, I’m back with the amazing cajeta-banana bread pudding recipe from Tacos, Tortas, and Tamales. While the duck tacos we made from the book last weekend were a great treat for a special dinner (duck is expensive!), this bread pudding is the kind of thing I want to make on a weekly basis. I won’t, because I value my ability to support my own body weight, but know that I want to. Why? Because caramel, cinnamon, custard, challah bread, and banana, baked up all warm and soft and topped with a scoop of vanilla ice cream and a little extra caramel sauce for good measure is about as close to the perfect comfort dessert as you can get.

This recipe is also pretty easy for such a crowd-pleaser. If you choose to go the fully homemade route, making the cajeta – Mexican goat’s milk caramel – takes a bit of effort, but once you have it on hand, making the rest of this recipe is a breeze. It’s also a new and different way to use up overripe bananas. Or challah that’s going stale. Or milk that’s going to expire. And even if you don’t have anything stale or overripe or expiring, it’s worth rushing to the store to get all new stuff to make this recipe. I think you probably get the picture, so I’ll stop gushing (side-effect of midnight blogging?) and let you get cooking!

Cajeta-Banana Bread Pudding

Recipe from Tacos, Tortas, and Tamales. Serves 8-10.

Note: I only made 1/4 batch of the cajeta recipe, which yielded 1 c., but immediately wished I had made a full batch so I had some leftovers. Making the cajeta from scratch takes 45 minutes to an hour.

• 1 lb. brioche or challah, torn into 1/2-inch chunks
• 1 c. whole milk
• 1 c. cajeta (homemade is best)
• 1 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• pinch of salt
• 1 c. heavy cream
• 3 large eggs
• 3 ripe bananas, peeled and thinly sliced

1. Preheat the oven to 350°F. Butter a shallow baking dish (a 9 inch pie pan would work well) and set aside.
2. Place the torn bread pieces in a single layer on a large baking sheet. Toast in the oven for 10-15 minutes, until dry on the outside but not colored. Let them cool.
3. In a small saucepan, combine the milk, cajeta, cinnamon, vanilla, and salt. Bring to a gentle simmer, whisking, until cajeta is completely melted, then remove from heat. In a medium bowl, whisk together eggs and heavy cream until smooth. Slowly drizzle in the hot milk mixture, whisking the eggs the whole time to keep from scrambling.
4. Toss the bread and the banana slices together in a large bowl. Add half of the custard to the bowl, stir to coat the bread, and let sit for 15 minutes to absorb the liquid. Add the remaining half of the custard and let sit for another 15 minutes. Pour the bread pudding into the buttered baking dish and bake for 30-35 minutes – the top should be browned slightly and a knife inserted into the center should come out clean. Serve hot with vanilla ice cream and leftover cajeta or butterscotch sauce (see recipe below).

Butterscotch Sauce

Recipe from the Food Network. Makes about 1 1/2 cups.

• 1/2 c. salted butter
• 1/2 c. heavy cream
• 1 c. light brown sugar

1. Combine all ingredients in a medium saucepan or saute pan. Bring to a boil over medium heat, stirring constantly. Boil gently until mixture has thickened, about 8 minutes. Remove from heat and serve over bread pudding – refrigerate leftovers.

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As the official end of summer is upon us, it’s high time I post an update on my summer bucket list from June.  While in my mind summer’s not over until tomatoes leave the farmer’s market and the water’s too cold to go swimming, it is true that the number of nice days left in the season is quickly shortening, and I better make the most of what’s left!

1. Go to the Cape.  While I haven’t done this yet, I haven’t given up on it, either.  Shoulder season on the Cape might even be nicer than the height of summer, who knows?
2. Pick berries.  Blueberries, raspberries, blackberries, even a few straggler strawberries on my landlord’s tiny plants – berries have been picked.  Sadly, the backyard raspberry patch season was ended early by raspberry fruitworms – I will get you next year, worms.
3. Learn to grill.  I did light the grill one or two times… and even flip things over on it… but I still haven’t done it myself, so I’m not checking it off yet.  What are some recipes that will entice me to grill?
4. Make Cassis.  Success!  After much searching, Trevor secured enough black currants to make a batch of homemade creme de cassis and it came out perfectly.  I’m so glad I have enough to last me through several evenings of Kirs.
5. Visit the Harbor Islands.  Ditto the Cape.  We actually tried to go to the Harbor Islands – as in, we went all the way to the dock, waited in line for tickets, only to find that tickets were mostly sold out for that day.  Thankfully, the ferry keeps running on weekends until October 8th, so perhaps an early fall picnic is in order.
6. Ride my bike.  You would think this was an easy one, right?  Wrong.  Apparently I have some sort of anxious relationship with my bike – I own a bike, but have managed to draw out the process of getting ready to ride it for over a year.  First the lock, then the helmet, then finding a pump to put air in the tires – easy things, took me forever.  Anyway, as of today it’s all set to go – I haven’t actually gotten on it yet, but I’m for sure doing it this week, so I’m crossing it off anyway.
7. Train for a half marathon.  I’m 100% surprised that this is one of the things I actually managed to accomplish this summer.  When my friend Steph suggested that Trevor and I join her and her boyfriend in Chicago for a half, I said yes and registered without too much thinking ahead, only to realize immediately after that I had only 6 weeks to whip my butt into shape.  But with Saturday’s 10-mile run under my belt, I’m feeling almost ready to hit the pavement – next weekend!  If that one’s a bust though, I’ve a bit longer to keep training for the Newburyport half with my mom – which isn’t until the beginning of November.
8. Do a producer interview.  Still an idea I like, just haven’t gotten around to it!
9. Plan a trip.  Fail, Katie.  We are going to Chicago, but that’s not exactly the trip I had in mind.  I’ll keep you posted.
10. Make at least 3 kinds of ice cream.  Well this one was super easy – making and consuming ice cream has never been much of a challenge for me.  I started the summer off with cherry-chocolate ice cream, proceeded to Bailey’s fudge ripple ice cream, and most recently popped a batch of super-easy and surprisingly healthy plum sorbet in the freezer.  Now that pumpkin beer has started to show up in stores, I’ve had a custardy pumpkin ice cream on my mind – ice cream has no season!

So 5 for 10.  Not too terrible, not too great.  It’s still possible I’ll finish all of them before the end of September, but if not, it was fun to do the things I did.  And as for the tart you’re seeing here, it’s included because the arrival of figs at the market is a sure sign that summer is slowly shifting into fall.  Figs aren’t my favorite fruit, but even I liked this custardy almond tart with caramelized figs and almond brittle enough to have a big slice.  After that, I handed it over to Trevor to finish off our first dinner in his new house.

Fig and Almond Custard Tart

Adapted from Sunday Suppers at Lucques.  Serves 8.

For the pate sucree (crust):

• 2 TBS cold heavy cream
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 1/2 c. flour
• 3 TBS sugar
• 1/8 tsp salt
• 1 stick cold butter
• 2 TBS ice cold water

1. Whisk together flour, sugar, and salt in a large bowl.  Cut butter into 1/2 inch chunks and add to flour mixture.  Use a pastry cutter to cut butter into flour until dough resembles coarse meal, with even pieces about the size of a pea.  In a small bowl, beat together egg yolk and cream until even in color.  Slowly drizzle egg mixture into dough while stirring with a wooden spoon.  Then add ice water 1 TBS at a time, stirring at the same time.  At this point, dough should hold together loosely when pressed.
2. Wrap dough in plastic wrap and chill for 10 mintues.  Remove from fridge and turn out onto a lightly floured surface.  Roll out into a 10 inch circle about 1/4 inch thick, then carefully lift over top of tart pan.  Press crust into edges of tart pan, and chill crust in pan for 1 hour.
3. Preheat oven to 400°F.  Prick the bottom of the chilled crust 4-5 times with a fork.  Line chilled tart crust with parchment paper, then fill with pie weights.  Bake for 15 minutes, then remove parchment paper and pie weights, and bake for another 15 minutes, until golden brown.  Set aside to cool for at least 20 minutes.

For the filling:

• 18 black mission figs, de-stemmed and quartered
• 3 TBS butter, divided
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 10 TBS sugar, divided
• 1/2 c whole blanched almonds
• 2 eggs
• 1 c. heavy cream
• 1 tsp almond extract
• 1 TBS cognac

1. Caramelize the figs: add 2 TBS butter to a large frying pan and heat over medium heat.  When butter begins to foam, add 3 TBS sugar, then swirl/stir until sugar has dissolved.  Add quartered figs, and cook, stirring, until figs have released their juices and are coated in sugar.  Remove from heat and stir in vanilla extract.  Set half of the fig mixture aside.  Spread the other half over the bottom of the pre-baked tart pan.
2. Wipe out the pan used to caramelize the figs and add remaining 1 TBS of butter and 3 TBS of sugar and stir to dissolve.  Add almonds, and caramelize, stirring frequently, until almonds are a toasty golden brown and sugar has begun to caramelize on them.  Remove from pan onto wax paper and let cool, then break almond brittle into bite sized pieces.
3. In a large bowl, whisk together eggs, remaining 4 TBS of sugar, cream, almond extract, and cognac until evenly combined.  Pour custard over fig mixture in tart shell, then bake for 30 minutes (still at 400°F), until custard is set and slightly puffed.  Let cool on a rack for 10 minutes, then top with remaining fig mixture and almond brittle.  Serve warm or after chilling in the fridge.

The post Summer Bucket List Update and a Fig and Almond Tart appeared first on Katie at the Kitchen Door.

Every spring, people begin waxing poetic about strawberries.  Tiny, perfect, juicy wild strawberries.  Up until now, I didn’t really get it.  Pretty much every time I get strawberries at the store they’re the same – big, very red, a little lumpy, pretty sweet but nothing to write home about, with about 20% too overripe to enjoy.  Just regular old strawberries.  Then, my mother brought these beautiful berries home from Mann Orchards, the 130 year old local farmstand and orchard (that, for me, is synonymous with absolutely perfect apple pie), and I got it.  These berries are beautiful.  They’re tiny.  They’re incredibly sweet.  Every single one was perfectly red all the way through.  They are deserving of starring in a very special dessert.  Which I’ll tell you about soon.  After I talk about strawberries some more.

More strawberries: I am on a mission to salvage the strawberries in our own, struggling orchard.  It was sort of a nice surprise when I came home and was reminded of all the things already growing at our house in Andover, especially after the trauma of leaving behind my well-loved shoebox garden in Durham.  Sure, the Andover garden is hiding under loads of weeds and none of the trees in the orchard have ever produced a piece of fruit that wasn’t munched by deer, but with my new-found farming inspiration and my father’s instruction, I’ve been slowly loving the garden back to a more attractive state.  The zucchini are planted, the cilantro survived my rather rough transplanting process, and the dill seems to have recovered from losing all the weeds that were holding it up.  The strawberries, however, are a bit of a battle, seeing as how they’re planted up in the orchard way behind the house, where each new strawberry is eaten just before it’s ready, and I cry a little when I go up to check them and they’re all gone.  The current solution is to place a sawed-off soda bottle over each bunch of green berries to protect them.  I don’t know when I got so good at loving plants, but I really love them.  Maybe it’s the absence of children under the age of 5 in my life these past two years – now I have excess love for small things.

Back to dessert.  These strawberries were begging not to be mashed, macerated, stewed, or otherwise transformed.  They were very vain. They wanted to stay whole.  And who am I to mush up something so naturally beautiful?  So I decided to make a tart, one of the pretty kinds you see in pastry shop windows with magically perfect fruit arranged on the top that cost twice as much as you’re willing to spend, but you buy them anyways.  And then the pastry cream is always a little too thick and flavorless and the crust is soggy and you’re disappointed, unless of course you’re in Paris in which case your tart is undoubtedly perfect… but I digress.  I wanted to make a tart equally as pretty as the pastry shop ones, but also delicious.  I had had a recipe for a strawberry almond cream tart for over a year, but upon closer inspection (it’s the Cooking Light one that you’ll find all over the web) I decided it was a little too pre-packaged for me, with the graham cracker crust and cream cheese filling.  Still, I loved the sound of the flavor combinations, so I took the idea my own route, baked a shortbread crust, filled it with almond pastry cream, and topped it with the berries as well as a strawberry-orange glaze.  Success!  Pretty, delicious, strawberry-y.  And, happily, the day the strawberries were really needing to be used happened to coincide with Father’s Day, so I got to dedicate and share this lovely treat to my papa.  Happy Dadhood to you!  And to all father’s everywhere; we (your children) love you.

Strawberry Almond Cream Tart

Serves 8.  Pastry cream recipe from The New Best Recipe.

• 1 qt. strawberries, washed, hulled, and sliced lengthwise
• 1 1/4 c. flour
• 10 TBS butter, room temperature
• 1/3 c. powdered sugar
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 2 c. half and half
• 1/2 c. sugar
• pinch salt
• 5 egg yolks
• 3 TBS cornstarch
• 4 TBS cold butter
• 1 1/2 tsp. almond extract
• 1/2 c. strawberry jelly
• 1 TBS water
• 1/2 TBS orange liquer

1. Preheat oven to 350°F.  Butter and flour a 9 inch tart pan.  In a large bowl, mix together flour, 1/4 tsp. salt and powdered sugar.  Cut in room temperature butter.  Mix together with a pastry cutter or the back of a fork until dough sticks together in pea sized crumbles.  Press dough evenly into tart pan, pushing up around the edges to form sides.  Poke the bottom of the crust several times with a fork, to keep dough from bubbling.  Bake 15 minutes, until just turning golden brown.  Remove from oven and allow to cool.
2. In a medium sized saucepan, bring half and half, pinch of salt and 6 TBS of the sugar to a full simmer, stirring occasionally to prevent scorching.  In a large bowl, whisk together egg yolks and remaining 2 TBS sugar until dissolved.  Whisk in cornstarch until the mixture is pale yellow and slightly thickened.
3. When half and half comes to a simmer, slowly pour into the egg yolk mixture, vigorously whisking the egg yolks all the while, to temper the yolks.  Pour custard back into pan, and cook, stirring constantly, until thickened and just beginning to bubble, about 2 minutes.  Remove from heat, stir in almond extract, and cut in chilled butter, stirring until it melts.  Strain through a fine-meshed sieve into a clean bowl, and allow to cool to room temp.  Press a piece of plastic wrap tightly against the surface of the custard and refrigerate until well chilled, about  2 hours.
4. Use a spatula to spoon the chilled custard into the tart crust and smooth evenly across the surface.  Decorate with sliced strawberries.  Bring the jelly, 1 TBS water, and liquer to a boil, then gently spoon over fruit to create a glaze.  Chill tart until ready to serve.  Best served soon after being assembled.

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