An impressive array of fruits and vegetables are ripening this very minute. As you sit reading this on your phone, I hope you have got some reusable shopping backs in the back of your car, and you are ready to hit the farmers’ markets with enthusiasm. You need to go stock up on blueberries and cherries. Right now. No delay. Because you can make the easiest desserts without worrying about anything but the deliciousness that comes with summer fruits.
I have finally reached an age where my son can share his own advice and recipes. This is one of the wonders of overlapping lives. Had I known this about him back when we were pacing the floor early in the morning, when he was wailing and wouldn’t sleep, when I discovered that the farm report on TV was a real thing, and not just a myth, it might have cheered my sleep-deprived self a little, and lifted my weary soul knowing that one day he would grow and thrive and be much taller than I was. That after the dark despair of those nights, I would one day be given a recipe for blueberry cobbler by a mewling, puking, outraged infant. Imagine that!
Chez Panisse’s Blueberry Cobbler (courtesy of the New York Times)
https://cooking.nytimes.com/recipes/9291-chez-panisses-blueberry-cobbler
INGREDIENTS
THE BERRIES:
4 ½ cups fresh blueberries
⅓ cup sugar
1 tablespoon all-purpose flour
THE DOUGH:
1 ½ cups all-purpose flour
½ teaspoon kosher salt
1 ½ tablespoons sugar
2 ¼ teaspoons baking powder
6 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/2-inch pieces
¾ cup heavy cream, plus additional for serving, if desired
Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. To prepare the berries, place in a bowl and toss with the sugar and flour. Set aside.
To make the dough, mix the flour, salt, sugar and baking powder in a bowl. Cut in the butter until mixture resembles coarse meal. Add the cream and mix lightly, just until the dry ingredients are moistened.
Put the blueberries in a 1 1/2-quart gratin or baking dish. Make patties out of the dough, 2 to 2 1/2 inches in diameter and 1/2-inch thick. Arrange them over the top of the berries. Bake until the topping is brown and the juices bubble thickly around it, about 35 to 40 minutes.
Let cool slightly. Serve warm, with cream to pour on top, if desired.
Sadly, there is a hitch to my fairy tale: I prefer cherry crumble. I am not a big fan of baked blueberries, unless they come wrapped in a nice warm muffin. Forgive me, Tall One. Let me suggest that you try baking this cherry crumble this weekend, as one adult to another.
Fresh Cherry Crumble
(Thanks you, https://www.countryhillcottage.com/cherry-crumble/)
For cherry filling
2 lb / approximately 6 cups sweet cherries, cleaned and pitted
1/4 cup granulated sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch
For the hazelnut streusel
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup brown sugar, cane sugar
1cup ground hazelnuts
2/3 cup cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes
1 teaspoon cinnamon
For decorating
confectioners’ sugar for decorating
1) Prep work
Preheat the oven to 350°F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Grease the ramekins or pie dish with butter, vegetable, oil or baking spray.
2) Cook the cherries
Add the cherries, granulated sugar, and corn starch into a heavy bottom saucepan and stir until well combined. Let the cherries macerate for 20 minutes to 1 hour, so the fruits soften and draw juice. If the cherries don’t draw a lot of moisture, add 3/4 – 1 cup water or cherry juice. Then cook the cherries for 10 to 15 minutes, until the cherries soften, and the mixture thickens. Stir constantly, so the fruit doesn’t burn at the bottom of the saucepan.
3) Make the hazelnut streusel
Add the all-purpose flour, brown sugar, hazelnuts, cinnamon, and cold butter cubes into a large mixing bowl. And knead into a crumbly mixture. Use your fingertips to squeeze together the dough to form large clumps.
4) Bake the crumble
Spoon the cherry mixture into the prepared baking dish(es) and top with the streusel. Bake for 20 – 25 minutes. Dust with confectioner’s sugar and serve warm or cold with cream, or ice cream.
I’m not trying to have the last word. Really. I’ll make the Blueberry Cobbler for Mr. Friday. And he will be amazed, just like I was, that everyone is growing up and changing.
“And so with the sunshine and the great bursts of leaves growing on the trees, just as things grow in fast movies, I had that familiar conviction that life was beginning over again with the summer.”
― F. Scott Fitzgerald
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