Cherry-Peach-Blueberry Cobbler

We eat a lot of fruit salad around here. We're quite indulgent that way. I chop the fruit, squirt some lime or lemon juice, sprinkle some sugar and call it a meal. I could eat the stuff pretty much all the time, and I cringed at the thought of baking all that delicious fruit into something syrupy and mushy, suffocating under dry biscuits. I needed a company dessert, however, and the peaches were pretty soft, so I gave cobbler a shot.

I saw a recipe on Smitten Kitchen for a cobbler with cornmeal biscuits, which sounded promising, and I chose my fruit carefully, because as a rule I do not like cooked fruit. I hate mixed berry pie with raspberries and blackberries, and for gosh sakes keep the hawaiian pizza away from me.

I realize I am not starting off with a tempting description of this amazing cobbler, but I wanted you to understand what it was up against first. In my mind, the only thing going for it was that it could be eaten with ice cream.

HOWEVER, I am please to announce that this fruit cobbler is delicious. It is warm and homey, with the added interest of cornmeal and with juices that complement ice cream just perfectly. In fact, I think I am won over to the cobbler camp. I think I'm even going to try again soon, maybe with an oatmeal topping next time!

Cobbler recipe adapted from Smitten Kitchen.

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.

I doubled the cornmeal biscuit topping recipe below, and if you want to know what I'd do next time, I think I'd only 1 1/2 it instead.

Use whatever berries or stone fruits strike your fancy. I used:

3 cups blueberries

2 peaches, cut in dice

1 cup cherries, cut in half

Mix the fruit with:

2/3 cup packed brown sugar

2 T flour

2 T lemon or lime juice

1/2 t ground cinnamon

1/4 t salt

Place fruit mixture in the bottom of a baking dish. Make the cornmeal biscuit topping:

3/4 cup flour

1/4 cup cornmeal

2 T brown sugar

1 1/2 t baking powder

1/4 t salt

2 T cold butter, cubed

1/2 cup buttermilk

Mix together the flour, cornmeal, brown sugar, baking powder and salt. Rub the butter into the flour mixture, then stir in the buttermilk. The dough will be sticky.

Plop the dough onto the fruit. I know my entire cobbler is covered with topping, but I think it's more aesthetically pleasing if the fruit can bubble up in gaps between the biscuit, so leave some spaces.

Bake until the fruit is bubbly and the biscuit is browned on top. This will take 20-30 minutes. Let it cool for a few minutes before scooping into bowls and serving with ice cream. You can tell people it is your grandmother's secret recipe when they inquire about the origin of this heavenly cobbler.

Cranberry-Cherry-Chocolate Chunk Cake

I wonder if others share my affinity for cranberries in baked goods. Fresh cranberries, not dried. I love the tangy, bright flavor nested in sweet cake next t0 smooth chocolate. This cake sports not only cranberries, but cherries too.

It's a pretty easy cake when you need a cake and don't have time to wait for the layers to cool and make frosting. Like when the dinner rush at the restaurant starts in an hour and there's no dessert in the case. It tastes best slightly warm with whipped cream or vanilla ice cream.

Cranberry-Cherry-Chocolate Cake, inspired by the Bittersweet Chocolate Pear Cake, found on Smitten Kitchen

1 cup AP flour

1 T baking powder

1/4 t salt

3 eggs, room temp (let sit in hot water for a few minutes)

1 stick unsalted butter

3/4 cup sugar

1/2 cup chopped cranberries

1 cup chopped cherries (I used frozen for both fruits)

3/4-1 cup bittersweet chocolate chunks

Preheat oven to 350. Line the bottom of a 9-in springform pan with parchment.

Sift the flour, salt and baking powder together. Using a mixing with the paddle attachment, whip the eggs until pale and thick. This will take 5 plus minutes.

While the whipping action is happening, brown the butter. Cut the stick into pieces and cook over medium heat, stirring occasionally (more often towards the end) until the butter turns brown and smells nutty. The butter will continue cooking after you turn off the heat, so don't wait too long to take it off. You can always dip the bottom of the pan in cool water to stop the cooking process if it's getting too dark.

Add the sugar to the eggs while whipping, whip a couple more minutes then turn to low. Alternate adding the flour and butter to the egg mixture. Mix until just barely combined- don't over mix. Watch out for butter pockets in the bottom of the bowl.

Pour into the spring form pan, and sprinkle the top with the chocolate, cranberries and cherries, alternating to ensure even distribution. Bake until a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean, anywhere from 30-50 minutes.

Let cool, sprinkle with powdered sugar, and serve.

Cherry-Chocolate Chunk Ice Cream

Possibly one of the greatest perks to having a wedding is the fact that you get to make a huge list of everything your heart has ever desired and then everyone you or your mother has ever met will go out and buy those things for you.

And if there's anything at all that those people overlooked, be it garlic mincers or fancy microplaners or 100,000 thread count sheets, you can always return the duplicates and buy the rest of the loot yourself. (before you think me shallow and doomed to marital failure, note I said this is the best thing about a wedding, not about the marriage).

Everything we got for our wedding was super cool (thanks everyone...again...and if you're in the very small minority that maybe somehow missed the thankyou card boat, I'm very sorry, and thank you very much.) However, there were two things I'd set my sights on as soon as I wrapped my head around the receiving of gifts deal: the juicer and the ice cream maker.

The juicer gets action more days than not, but somehow this weekend was the first time we used our icecream maker! I talked about it non-stop for 6 months before we received it, then it sat in the basement for another 7 months! What was I thinking?

Now that we've done it, I'm not sure we'll be able to stop. I'm already planning the next batch.

Cherry Chocolate Chunk Ice Cream, found on Simply Recipes.

When I chose this recipe I was thinking about Ben and Jerry's Cherry Garcia Ice Cream, my absolute favorite ice cream in the world. Unfortunately, this is not that ice cream. It is very good, though, with cherry and chocolate chunks, and is even better if you let it soften a bit after the freezer and before you eat it. Next I'm going to try a custard-based ice cream; I want to maximize the creaminess of the next batch.

1 1/2 cups pitted ripe sweet cherries (from about 3/4 lb cherries) (i used frozen)

3/4 cup milk

1 3/4 cups cream

1/2 cup sugar

1 pinch salt1 teaspoon lemon juice

2 Tbsp Amaretto, cherry liqueur, or rum (optional)

4 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped fine, keep in freezer until use (I used half ghiradelli semi sweet bar and have hersey's special dark bar)

Put cherries, milk, one cup of the cream, sugar, and salt into a medium saucepan. Heat on medium heat until the mixture is steamy, then lower the heat to warm and just let sit for about 15 minutes. Remove from heat. Blend the mixture just a little bit. I wanted cherry chunks in my ice cream, and more than a couple whirls will annihilate the chunks.

Put mixture into a large bowl. Stir in the remaining 3/4 cup of cream. Chill for several hours in the refrigerator until completely cold. (Can also place bowl over an ice bath, to speed up the cooling process.) (Apparently it's really important that the batter for ice cream is quite cold)

Before putting the mixture into your ice cream maker, stir in the lemon juice and the Amaretto or other liqueur if you are using. Note that you can skip the alcohol if you want, but the addition of it will help the ice cream from getting too icy, and the amaretto can add a nice flavor boost to the ice cream. Churn the ice cream in your ice cream maker according to the manufacturer's instructions.

Once the ice cream has completed churning, the ice cream should be pretty soft. Gently fold in the finely chopped chocolate. Put in an airtight container and place in the freezer for at least an hour, preferably several hours.

Makes about one quart.

I doubled the batch because we have a three quart machine. I didn't realize at the time that this would make a LOT of ice cream. We still have a huge bowlful in out freezer. Feel free to come help us eat it!

Cherry-Chocolate Chip Cupcakes by Cakelove...Fail

I'm already plotting new cherry cupcakes, because this one failed so spectacularly. I'm envisioning a Ben n Jerry's Cherry Garcia inspired cupcake.

The flavor wasn't awful, but what the heck do you do with an inverted cupcake?

Perhaps someone can tell me: Was the recipe bad? Did I somehow screw up the recipe? Could this have been solved by not overfilling the cupcake papers?

This cupcake featured chopped dried cherries, cherry puree (made by boiling sugar and frozen cherry puree), chocolate chips and cocoa powder.

Undoubtedly, the best part of the experience was Italian Meringue Buttercream with Cherry Puree. Make the IMB recipe, and add about 1/4 cup cherry puree. It's beautiful.

The cupcake bowls provided a space to slather on about 3 times as much frosting as necessary, but while this cherry frosting was killa dilla...too much is too much.

Fail :(