What to do with farmer's market raspberries

I made this for one of my family night dinners, and it got absolutely RAVE reviews!  I'm not exactly sure what the definition of semifreddo is, but I know I like it!

This is great for the summer, when we have fresh and local raspberries to use.  It's derived from an Epicurious recipe, but I used ginger snap crust instead of shortbread.  I think that made it even better.


Raspberry Semifreddo Torte

For crust

• 8-10 oz ginger snap cookies (must be crispy)
• 3 tablespoons butter
• 1/2 cup natural almonds, toasted and cooled (I always toast in a pan, rather than the oven.  I'm less likely to burn them that way.)
• 1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

For filling

• 2 large eggs
• 1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon sugar
• 1 1/2 cups raspberries (6 ounces)
• 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
• 1 cup chilled heavy cream

Preheat oven to 350°F. 

Make crust:
Combine ginger cookies, cinnamon, and nuts in a food processor until finely ground. Melt butter and pour into processor.  Pulse until completely mixed.

Press mixture firmly over bottom and halfway up the sides of a 9-inch springform pan. Bake crust in middle of oven 10 minutes, then cool in pan on a rack. 

Make filling:
Beat eggs, 1/2 cup sugar, and a pinch of salt together at medium-high speed until doubled in volume, about 5 minutes. Set beat custard over a double-boiler until an instant-read thermometer registers 140°F (I used a candy thermometer), about 5 minutes. Continue beating over heat 3 minutes more. Remove bowl from heat and chill custard until cool, about 10 minutes.

Toss raspberries with remaining tablespoon sugar in a large fine sieve set over a bowl, then force berries through sieve, pressing on solids, and discard seeds. Stir in almond extract.  Fold strained raspberries into cooled custard. 

Beat cream with cleaned beaters until it just holds stiff peaks and fold gently into raspberry mixture.

Spoon filling into crust, smoothing top. Wrap pan in foil and freeze at least 4 hours. (Filling will be firm but not frozen solid.

Run a thin knife around edge of torte and remove side of pan.

Original Recipe Source: http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/Raspberry-Semifreddo-Torte-103695#ixzz0utO0iQhV

Rhubarb-Berry Oatmeal Bars

Getting fresh produce at the farmer's market just puts me in a baking mood! I got some fresh rhubarb at the this weekend, and I had just a few organic raspberries leftover after I devoured most of them fresh.  I don't typically like baked fruit, but there's something about rhubarb that I just love.  Maybe it's because it's technically a vegetable, or maybe it's because I just like all the flavors that go along with it when it's baked.  Anyway, here's my own sweet concoction for fresh rhubarb.

Rhubarb-Berry Oatmeal Bars

Ingredients:

 3/4 cup butter, softened
1 cup packed brown sugar
1 1/2 cups rolled oats
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 c raspberry jam or raspberry puree (add sugar to the puree, or your bars might end up too tart)
4 ripe stalks fresh rhubarb, chopped and tossed in 2-4 tablespoons sugar

Recipe:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Grease a 9x13 inch pan

2. Combine flour, oats, sugar, cinnamon, and baking powder in a large bowl.  Cut in the softened butter and stir together until the mixture begins to clump together and is completely combined.  I like to use my fingers for this part!

3. Press half of the crumbs into the pan.  Spread the raspberries over the crust, then sprinkle the rhubarb over that.  Crumble the rest of the "dough" over the rhubarb, and press down lightly to flatten down.

4. Bake in the oven until golden brown on top, about 20-25 minutes.  Cool completely before cutting.

These go wonderfully with fresh vanilla whipped cream or vanilla ice cream!

New Pizza Recipe and Pumphouse- Yum!

My friend and I had an impromptu pizza night last night, before going out to Pumphouse Creamery, which has local, organic ice cream in phenomenal flavors, like Local Red Raspberry, Oatmeal Cookie, Cardamom, Hispaniola Cocoa, Sea Salt Caramel/Praline-Pecan Cream, and Buckwheat Honey.  I had a hard time deciding which flavors to try, but settled on Raspberry and Cardamom.  Overall, I thought the flavors were delectable, but the texture was slightly on the grainy side for the Cardamom.  This place is defnitely somewhere I'll return to, simply because it's local, and the flavors are one-of-a-kind.

And back to the pizza:

Honey Wheat Pizza Dough
 Makes 8 individual crusts


Ingredients:

2 1/4 tsp dry active yeast, or one envelope
1 1/4 warm water (not too hot, or it will kill the yeast)


2 c unbleached all-purpose flour
1 1/2 c whole wheat flour
1 tsp salt 

2 T honey
2 T olive oil, plus more for greasing the bowl


Stir the yeast into the warm water.   Once dissolved, let stand for 5-10 minutes while preparing other ingredients.  Mix together the flours and salt in a large bowl.  Pour yeast into center of flour and stir together with a wooden spoon.  Finish mixing with hands, adding honey and oil once flour and water-yeast mixture and almost completely incorporated.  Knead dough for a minute or two on a floured surface and give the empty bowl a light coating of olive oil.  Replace the dough in the bowl, turning over a few times to coat it with the oil.  Cover with a thin dish towel and place in a warm (dog-proof!) space for 45 minutes-2 hours to let rise.


Once dough has doubled in size (it was summer and took only 35 minutes for us), punch it down before turning it back out onto the floured surface.  Cut the dough into 8 equal pieces, shaping each one into a round ball.  Let stand, covered by the cloth, for 10-15 minutes.


Preheat oven to 500 degrees (broil setting).  Stretch crusts thinly into round shapes, being careful not to overwork the dough or tear it.  Optional: dust the bottoms with cornmeal to prevent sticking. Top with whatever you want, then bake on a cookie sheet or pizza stone until crust is slightly browned, crispy, and the cheese is browned and bubbly, about 8-12 minutes.


Enjoy!

French Apple-Almond Tart

I made this a while back, for Father's Day (my dad's a huge fan of anything that includes baked goods and apples), and it was really good.  I loved the almond paste-like filling between the apples and the crust. 

Crust:
1 large egg yolk
1 tablespoons brandy
1/2 cup plus 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
1 tablespoon sugar
1/2 teaspoon nutmeg
1/8 teaspoon salt
5 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, cut into 1/2 -inch pieces


Filling:
1/2 cup (heaping) raw almonds
1/3 cup sugar, plus extra for topping
1 large egg
2 tablespoons brandy
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 teaspoon almond extract
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 tablespoons unsalted butter, room temperature
2 tart apples, peeled, quartered, cored, cut into 1/8-inch-thick wedges (I used Fuji)


To make the crust:

Stir egg yolks and brandy in small bowl to blend. Combine flour, sugar, nutmeg and salt in processor. Add butter; cut in, using on/off turns, until butter is size of small peas. With machine running, add yolk mixture. Process until large moist clumps form. Gather dough into ball; flatten into disk. Wrap dough in plastic; refrigerate until cold, about 1 hour. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Keep chilled. Let soften slightly before rolling out.)

Roll out dough on lightly floured surface to 11-inch round. Transfer to 9-inch round cake pan. Fold overhang in and press, forming double-thick sides. Chill while making filling.

To make the filling:

Combine almonds, sugar, egg, 1 tablespoon brandy, extracts and salt in processor. Blend until soft paste forms. Add 4 tablespoons butter; blend 10 seconds. Spread in crust. Chill until firm, about 45 minutes.

Meanwhile, stir apples, 1 tablespoon brandy and 1 tablespoon sugar in large bowl. Let stand 30 minutes.

Preheat oven to 400°F. Drain apples; overlap in concentric circles atop filling. Melt 2 tablespoons butter; brush over apples. Sprinkle with 1-2 tablespoons sugar.

Bake tart 10 minutes. Reduce temperature to 350°F. Bake until apples are tender, about 40 minutes. Transfer to rack to cool.

This tastes wonderful warm or chilled, and goes nicely with vanilla ice cream or fresh whipped cream on top!

Recipe adapted from:

 http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/food/views/French-Apple-Almond-Tart-4665#ixzz0t9J8IoOK