Summer Fruit Crostata

When I make my flakey pastry dough, it makes five shells. This means I get two double crust pies and one pie bottom. Last time, I made butter tarts with the left over shell, and this time, I delved into the rustic pie or what Ina Garten calls a Crostata.

Hours before we had company for dinner, I pulled the pastry out of the freezer, let it thaw, threw in some fruit, loosely "closed" it and baked it. It was definitely rustic looking but something I would be proud to take as a dessert to a barbecue or picnic.

In mine, I used peach and blueberries because that's what I had on hand, but you could use any kind of pie filling and it would be great. Glad I have this quick and easy dessert in my back pocket for emergencies!


Ingredients

• 1 flakey pie crust
• 1 pound ripe peaches, peeled
• 1 pint blueberries
• 1 tbsp flour, plus 1/4 cup
• 1 tbsp sugar, plus 1/4 cup
• 1/4 tsp orange zest
• 2 tbsp orange juice
• 1/4 tsp kosher salt
• 4 tbsp cold butter, diced

Directions

• Preheat oven to 450 degrees and line a sheet pan with parchment paper.
• Roll the pastry into a large circle on a lightly floured surface and transfer to sheet pan.
• For the filling, cut the peaches into wedges and mix with blueberries. Toss them with one tbsp of flour, one tbsp of sugar, the orange zest and the orange juice. Place the mixed fruit on the dough circle, leaving a 1 1/2 inch border. 
• Combine the 1/4 cup flour, 1/4 cup sugar, salt and butter. Using two knives or a pastry blender, cut the butter into the dry ingredients until mixture is crumbly. Rub with your fingers until it starts to hold together. Sprinkle evenly over the fruit. Gently fold the border of the pastry over the fruit, pleating it to make an edge.
• Bake for 20-25 minutes until the crust is golden and the fruit is tender. Let cool for five minutes then use two large spatulas to transfer to a wire rack.
• Serve warm or at room temperature.

Adapted from the Barefoot Contessa at Home

Blueberry Pie

I made another pie! This time it was made with fresh Ontario blueberries and I learned a few tricks along the way.

I spent some time on YouTube to learn how to roll the crust out and better make edges. The first time I made pie, I just cut off all the edges -- resulting in a pretty thin crust. This time, I learned to trim off the excess crust but to leave about an inch of dough around the edges, and then fold the top layer over the bottom layer and tuck inside the pie plate. I didn't do a great job, but I also tried fluting the edges here. So two pies down and already a vast improvement. 

I had this pastry dough in the freezer from the first batch that I made and it still tasted delicious. I had frozen the remaining pastry dough into balls (each ball makes one pie crust). To use it, I just left it in the fridge for a couple of days to thaw, then I rolled out as normal. 

With the pastry already made, this pie really just took about 20 minutes to prepare and then I popped it in the oven! Like the strawberry-rhubarb pie though, the fruit is really runny when it comes out of the oven, so it needed to sit for about three hours to firm up before I could cut it. It was worth the wait, for sure!

Ingredients

• 1 Flakey Pastry Crust
• 4 cups blueberries
• ¾ cup white sugar
• 3 tbsp cornstarch
• ¼ tsp salt
• ½ tsp ground cinnamon

Directions


1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Mix sugar, cornstarch, salt and cinnamon and sprinkle over blueberries. Toss together.


3. Line pie dish with one pie crust. Pour berry mixture into the crust.


4. Cover with remaining pie crust. Cut off excess dough and fold edges (top over bottom) and tuck into pie plate. Slice air vents into top of pie.
5. Bake pie on lower shelf of oven at 425 for 15 minutes. Turn oven down to 375 degrees and bake for another 35 minutes, or until crust is golden brown.

Download printable recipe for Blueberry Pie

To Die For Blueberry Muffins

This recipe came from one of my favourite sites to scout recipes: www.allrecipes.com. On this site, someone will post a recipe and then other bakers and cooks can rate the recipe and write in what they liked about it -- or didn't like about it -- and often what recommendations they had for it. I like this site in particular because I enjoy other new chefs commenting on recipes and appreciate the feedback they offer.

This blueberry muffin recipe had 3,750 comments and received 4.5 out of 5 stars. And let me tell you, that many people certainly weren't wrong! This recipe is oustanding, ridiculously easy and full of ingredients I already had on hand (huge bonus). Plus, the crumble topping was a nice treat!

One of the things in particular I noticed when mixing this was how thick the batter was. It was unlike anything I had ever made before -- really dense and more cake-like than muffin. It bakes up really well and I wouldn't call the muffins light and fluffy, but they have a nice substance to them. Don't be shy on the blueberries either!

The original recipe said this made eight muffins, but I stretched it to 10 (in a regular muffin tin) so I had room on top to add the crumble mixture.

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 cup fresh blueberries
• 1/2 cup white sugar
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup butter, cubed
• 1 1/2 teaspoons ground cinnamon

Directions

Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners.



Combine 1 1/2 cups flour, 3/4 cup sugar, salt and baking powder. Place vegetable oil into a 1 cup measuring cup; add the egg and enough milk to fill the cup. Mix this with flour mixture. Fold in blueberries. Fill muffin cups right to the top, and sprinkle with crumb topping mixture.


To Make Crumb Topping: Mix together 1/2 cup sugar, 1/3 cup flour, 1/4 cup butter, and 1 1/2 teaspoons cinnamon. Mix with fork, and sprinkle over muffins before baking.


Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until done.




Print recipe for To Die for Blueberry Muffins

Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes

Every sunday morning, I make the same pancake recipe. It's easy and delicious, but this weekend, I had buttermilk in my fridge so I whipped out a brunch cookbook and found this new recipe. 

These pancakes are light and fluffy but rich and decadent at the same time. The batter -- which was full of air holes -- should have been a good indication of how light these were going to be. They were certainly a nice change to my regular stack and the kind of special occasion pancake you'd serve with warm maple syrup and whipped cream. Mmmm...

The trick to these is in the mixing. If you overmix the batter, the pancakes won't be moist and delicate. The batter, according to the recipe, should be thick and lumpy, but by the time I went to put my second batch on the skillet, it was light and airy. 

Ingredients

• 2 cups flour
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 2 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp baking soda
• 2 large eggs
• 2 cups buttermilk
• 1/4 cup butter, melted and cooled
• 1 cup fresh blueberries
• some butter to grease the skillet

Directions

In a large bowl, sift together the flour, sugar, salt, baking powder and baking soda.

In a separate bowl, beat the eggs with the buttermilk and melted butter.

Using a spatula, combine the dry and wet ingredients to make a thick, lumpy batter, being careful not to overmix.

In a non-stick skillet, melt some butter over medium heat. Ladle 1/3 cup batter into hot skillet and sprinkle with blueberries. Do not overcrowd the skillet because the pancakes will puff up and out as they cook.

When bubbles appear on the surface of the pancakes, and the edges begin to brown, flip the pancakes and cook the other side. 

Smother with maple syrup and a dollop of whipped cream.

Print recipe for Blueberry Buttermilk Pancakes

Recipe from Out to Brunch: A Mildred Pierce Restaurant