Jasmine Peaches with Lime Sorbet

Peaches are showing their lovely glow in markets now. Who can resist? It’s still a bit early in the season, but you should be able to find some wonderful ripe fruit for all your favorite peach pastries and desserts.

The very first post I made to this blog was a rhapsody to peaches, so you know I’m enraptured with them. They represent the deep hard-wiring I have about the sumptuous bounty of the natural world. Eat a peach and all is right.

The lusciousness of peaches is so great that I sometimes hesitate to do anything very complicated with them. So here is one not-too-fussy recipe that tries to elevate the simple gorgeousness of the peach. I pair the fruit with a subtle but fabulous partner, a wonderfully fragrant jasmine tea blended with sugar. Jasmine tea comes from the Hunan Province and is the oldest known blossom-scented tea. It adds a light floral note. Baking brings out their combined lovely soft flavors and terrific juices. This subtle marriage is a happy one.

I add a small dose of cool lime sorbet just to lift up the acidity a bit and add another creamy but not fatty layer to the union. If you love citrus, you’ll be crazy about this sorbet. It is absolutely delicious all by itself and would also pair well with lots of other fruit. It takes no time at all to prepare. The reward is ginormous.



Bench notes:
- Use the best, most fragrant jasmine tea you can find.
- You can make the sorbet base ahead and refrigerate it for a day before churning.
- This is best served when the peaches are still warm and the sorbet is just about melting.



Jasmine Peaches with Lime Sorbet

Yogurt Lime Sorbet
adapted from Gray Kunz in Food and Wine
Makes about 3 cups

2 C plain whole-milk yogurt
1 C fresh lime juice
1/4 C + 2 T sugar
2 t finely grated lime zest

Whisk together the yogurt, lime juice, sugar and lime zest. Pour into a clean airtight container and refrigerate until the mixture is well chilled.

Place in your ice cream maker and freeze. Store in your freezer for about an hour to firm up.

Jasmine Peaches
Makes 4 servings

4 ripe peaches
1/4 C sugar
2 t jasmine tea
1/2 lemon
1 T butter, melted

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

Process the sugar with the tea until finely blended.

Halve and pit the peaches and place in a baking dish. Spritz with lemon juice. Brush with melted butter. Sprinkle with jasmine sugar.

Bake for about 20 minutes or until the peaches are tender and juicy.

Plate and serve while still warm. Add a scoop of Lime Sorbet. Devour.

Strawberries in Black Pepper Meringue

It’s strawberry time! Strawberries are aplenty right now. Lucky for us, what lies ahead is a long and playful season of shortcakes and pies and coolers and compotes. In addition to these traditional treats, I thought I would try something a little bit off the beaten track.

Meringues are so simple and airy and light. Add a little black pepper and they become these intriguing sweet-spicy-warm crunchy cases for a handful of strawberries that have been tossed with a bit of sugar and Grand Marnier. Biting into one of these fills your mouth with a lot of different sensations – crunchy sweet blasting into a million shards, fresh luscious strawberries with a bright citrus acidity and warm sweet spice finishing with a bit of heat. Hard to put your finger on it, so it requires another bite. And then another. And you keep going until you figure it out.

This dessert is an unusual and fun combination that also provides a great ending to a light summer meal. Yes, it's just about summertime. Where the living is easy.


Bench notes:
- For the meringue, use freshly ground pepper. If you have very pungent peppercorns, use a heaping 1/4 teaspoon. If you like the fiery taste of spice and heat, add a smidgen more.
- If you enjoy using a pastry bag, it’s fun to create lovely shapes with your favorite tip. If not, simply plop the meringue with a spoon or use a small offset spatula to spread it out into whatever shape you desire. Just make sure that the bottom isn’t too thick so it dries out properly.
- Once they were baked, I shut my gas oven off and left them in the oven overnight. For longer term, store them in an airtight container to avoid any humidity. If you stack them, separate them with parchment paper.
- Play with the strawberries according to your own taste. I added sugar, Grand Marnier and orange zest, but if you have a better idea about what would go well with black pepper, go for it and let me know! Lavender sugar might work or a splash of quality balsamic.
- Garnish with a bit of sweetened whipped cream if you like, flavored with orange liqueur, an herbed simple syrup or a pinch of caramel.



Strawberries in Black Pepper Meringue
Makes 10-12

4 egg whites @ room temperature
pinch salt
1/4 t cream of tartar
3/4 C sugar
1/4 – 1/2 t black pepper, to taste

2 lbs strawberries
sugar, to taste
Grand Marnier, to taste (optional)
Zest of half an orange

Preheat oven to 150 degrees. Trace circle, rectangle or square shapes of whatever size you wish on a piece of parchment paper using a dark pencil. Place parchment pencil side down on a baking sheet.

Place the egg whites in the bowl of an electric mixer and whisk on medium low speed. Add cream of tartar when they are foamy. Increase speed to medium and continue whipping until they are opaque and form a very soft peak. Increase speed to medium high and slowly drizzle sugar a couple of tablespoons at a time. Continue whipping until meringue forms stiff shiny peaks that hold their shape.

Drop meringue by spoonfuls or pipe onto the parchment-lined baking sheet. Place in the oven and bake for about 2 hours or until meringue easily releases from the parchment and feels dry to the touch. Turn off the oven, leaving the oven door closed, and continue to let meringue dry.

Hull and slice the strawberries. Add sugar to taste and a shake of Grand Marnier. Add the orange zest and let the berries sit for a few minutes to allow the flavors to bloom and the berries to macerate just a bit.

Arrange berries in your meringue vessels and serve immediately.

Cherry Chocolate Vanilla Open-faced Sandwiches

Cherries are among us! These bright shiny jewels with their long green stems are bursting with sweet colorful juice. Ah yes, Spring has truly arrived.

There is a wonderful Cherry Sauce from Charlie Trotter seared in my memory. It combines some lovely flavors in perfect proportion and of course it pairs perfectly with chocolate and vanilla. So here is my idea for an open faced ice cream sandwich that I think is the most delicious way to experience the genre.

The Cherry Sauce is a tart-sweet concoction with a nice mystique of spice and a delicate back note of wine. The not-too-sweet chocolate cookie showcases a deep cocoa flavor and crisp texture that complements the fruity sauce and the lusciousness of fresh vanilla ice cream. Put this trio together if you find yourself with a packet of fresh cherries on your table. Its magic will keep you spellbound well beyond the last bite.

Bench notes:
- The recipe for this Cherry Sauce calls for Sauternes, but a white Muscat, Beaumes de Venise, Sémillon or Monbazillac would be good substitutes. Be careful not to confuse Sauternes, a sweet French dessert wine, with Sauterne, a dry wine made in the United States.
- If your cherries are not at all sweet, add 1 T of sugar to the sauce ingredients.
- The Chocolate Cookies are a wonderful version of the standard that take their primary flavor from cocoa, so use a quality brand if you can. The recipe makes about 40 2” cookies. For this plating, I rolled out four larger rectangular shapes and formed one 2” log with the remaining cookie dough. Or simply serve this as a Sundae with a couple of cookies on the side.
- It can be difficult to tell when chocolate cookies are done because they don’t brown, so watch them very closely. Bake just until the cookie moves easily when nudged. Baking too long will produce burnt edges and they will taste bitter. The cookies crisp up as they cool.
- When making the base for the ice cream, watch it closely. If you use an instant read thermometer, cook it to about 165 degrees, then pull it off and keep stirring for just a moment. Residual heat will usually take it to 170, which is about right. But you have to watch it very, very closely because at that point the temperature rises very quickly. When it reaches 170 you have to pour it off immediately into the chilled cream. It's trashed at 180.
- Preparation can be staged over 2 or 3 days. Prepare the ice cream base and mix the cookie dough on day 1. Spin the ice cream on day 2. Make the sauce and bake off the cookies. If you don’t have the time or inclination to make fresh vanilla ice cream, substitute a great artisan or quality brand.


Cherry Chocolate Vanilla Open-Faced Ice Cream Sandwiches
Makes 4 servings

Cherry Sauce
adapted from Charlie Trotter’s Desserts

1 C Sauternes
1/2 C water
1/4 C lemon juice
2 cinnamon sticks
3 star anise
1 lb cherries, pitted

Bring liquids and spices to a slow boil over medium heat. Add the pitted cherries and slowly return to a boil. Remove cherries and reduce sauce by half. Remove the cinnamon sticks and star anise. Cool. Add half the cherries to the sauce reduction and puree. Strain and add remaining cherries to the sauce.


Chocolate Cookies
Makes about 40 2” cookies

6 oz (1 1/2 sticks) butter @ room temperature
1 C sugar
1 egg
2 t vanilla
1 1/2 C flour (7 1/2 oz)
3/4 C cocoa, sifted (2 oz)
1 1/4 t baking powder
1/4 t salt

Sift cocoa and spoon into measuring cup to get 3/4 C or 2 oz.

Sift together flour, cocoa, baking powder and salt.

Beat butter and sugar together for 2 – 3 minutes until smooth. Add egg and vanilla and beat for another minute.

Add dry ingredients on low speed and mix for about a 1/2 minute or so, just until combined. Divide dough into two parts and place each on a piece of parchment paper. Gather the dough and form into 12” x 2“ logs, rolling up in the parchment paper. Wrap the logs tightly in plastic wrap and freeze. (Alternatively, divide the dough and position each part in the center of a piece of plastic. Top with another piece of plastic and roll out to 1/4”. Place on a baking sheet or pizza pan and chill thoroughly for a few hours or overnight. Cut out desired shapes to bake.)

Preheat oven at 350 degrees.

Slice dough into 1/4” cookies and bake @ 350 degrees for 10 minutes or until the cookies move easily when nudged.


Vanilla Bean Ice Cream
adapted from Fruit by Alice Waters
Makes 1 quart

6 yolks
1 C whole milk
2/3 C sugar
pinch salt
1 vanilla bean
2 C heavy cream, chilled

Place the chilled heavy cream into a large bowl. Set aside.

Whisk the yolks in another bowl.

Combine the milk, sugar and salt in a medium saucepan. Split the vanilla bean and scrape the seeds into the milk mixture along with the bean pod. Heat slowly over low heat, until the sugar is dissolved and the milk is steaming a bit, stirring to fully combine.

Take off the heat and add some of the hot liquid into the egg yolks. Whisk constantly to combine and temper the two elements. Add the remaining milk and whisk thoroughly. Return to the saucepan and cook on low heat, stirring constantly with a wooden spoon or heatproof rubber spatula until it begins to thicken and coats the back of a spoon, leaving a clean trace.

Remove from heat and strain into the heavy cream, whisking to mix and cool. Cover and chill thoroughly, preferably overnight.

Freeze in your ice cream maker. Pour into a container and freeze to firm up.

Apricot Packets

Continuing my love affair with the season's amazing apricot bounty, today’s reverie is all about the fruit. We have gorgeous apricots baked in parchment paper, en papillote. How simple and elegant is that?

If you love apricots in a fairly unadulterated state, you will surely have to try these. Thanks to Pierre Hermé, we have a wonderfully fresh aromatic dessert that is incredibly easy to produce in just a very few minutes. These sumptuous tart-sweet apricots with just a hint of spice come together in a miraculous flush of flavor after ten minutes in the oven. The combination of sugar, the lavender and bergamot emanating from Earl Grey tea, and the lemon zest and juice add a sublime aroma. A very small dab of butter lends a silkiness to the whole mixture. The subtle soft flavors blend miraculously and the juices are out of this world, almost too good to be true. Sometimes it’s best to just let nature shine, pure and simple. Try this.



Bench notes:
- Putting together these packets needn't be a matter of precision. Use your own taste and judgment when distributing the seasonings. I give you my preferences, but use a bit more or less in your own proportion, according to your own whim.
- I used parchment paper and employed some tartlet pans to hold down the two sides of the packet to ensure a tight seal.
- You can choose to garnish or not. I much prefer the fruit as is without any cream. But if you wish, Hermé recommends ricotta sweetened with sugar, honey and orange flower water.
- This is a dessert you’ll want to enjoy warm, so serve immediately.
- Save the apricot pits for Noyau Ice Cream, coming soon!



Apricot Packets
adapted from Desserts by Pierre Hermé
Serves 4

16 apricots
1 lemon
4 T sugar
freshly ground pepper
1 t Earl Grey tea
1 T butter
parchment paper or foil

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Prepare four pieces of parchment or foil about 12” x 14”.

Halve the apricots and remove the pit. Slice each apricot half into 3 pieces.

Place sugar, about a teaspoon of Earl Grey tea, the zest of one half lemon and a few grinds of fresh pepper in a food processor or a clean spice grinder. Process until the aromas are released and the mixture is blended.

Place about 24 slices of apricot onto a piece of parchment or foil. Sprinkle the sugar spice mixture evenly over the apricots. Add a spritz of lemon juice. Dot with a bit of butter. Bring the parchment paper together and fold the packet down the middle until it lies flat. Fold up the remaining two sides tightly. You want the packet to be tightly sealed so that no steam escapes. Place the packets on a baking sheet.

Bake for 10 – 12 minutes or until the packets are puffed.

Place each packet on a dessert plate and serve immediately. Take in that wonderful aroma and magnificent flavor. (If you click on these photos, I do believe you'll be able to swim in this sensation...) Ahhhhh, apricots.

Cornmeal Cake with Apricots

If you’re anything like me, you have some favorite seasonal fruit pastries that you absolutely must make every year. They are at the top of your list. You anticipate the season’s fruit arrival for weeks and weeks and you stalk the markets for the first sign. The spring and summer fruit season does that to me. So many gorgeous things in our pastry toolbox.

Imagine my sheer bliss at the sight of this season’s apricots! They are just about my favorite pastry fruit and every year I wait in total anticipation of a first sighting of their bright pastel glow. Perhaps it was growing up down the street from an apricot orchard that first got me hooked. These fabulous earthly gems just make my heart sing. My only sadness is that the season is so unbelievably, achingly, unrealistically short. In just a matter of days, they will be gone. So please, put down what you’re doing and run, do not walk, to the nearest apricot display. There is not a moment to waste.

One of the apricot pastries I must always make is an apricot galette. It’s one of my favorite things in the pastry kingdom. Then there’s today’s apricot compote, which comes from the pages of In the Sweet Kitchen by Regan Daley. She, too, is an apricot aficionado. She, too, understands apricot adoration. And she does not fail us. With the minimalist brilliance of a bit of honey, vanilla bean and cinnamon – the holy trinity of complimentary flavors for our beloved apricot – she has managed to take us to a new frontier of apricot worship. And worship I will because this is one of my must-haves every apricot season and yes, here we are.

I’ve paired the compote with a light cornmeal cake because its golden tenderness and slightly sweet crunchiness seem the perfect complement for our sumptuous apricots. It’s one of those enduring partnerships that fill your dreams until the season arrives at last. I’ve tried and tested a lot of cornmeal cake recipes. It can be hard to get the right balance of cornmeal and the right level of density or tenderness depending on the dessert you’re aiming to create. I love the Cornmeal Peach Upside Down Cakes of last summer, but this one is different. It’s a bit sturdier to stand up to the sweet tart acidity of the fruit and the spicy brightness of the syrup. Perhaps you also have a favorite or two?

Do give this one a try if you have a chance. I'll bet you won’t be able to stop sampling this dessert once you’ve been enveloped in all of these incredible aromas wafting through your kitchen. The tart sweet spicy smooth flavors of the compote and syrup and the lovely buttery cornmeal cake with the delicate flavor really truly are a very happy marriage.

Let’s get going. There is apricot ice cream and sorbet to churn, apricot galettes to fashion, apricot soufflés to whip. So many apricot desserts, so little time. The hour is here!



Bench notes:
- I use a stand mixer but I always take the mix off just before it’s done and finish it by hand to avoid over mixing.
- When making the compote, be sure not to let the mixture boil. Keep it at a low simmer to preserve the flavor of the fruit. You want a lovely, soft compote, but not jam. The compote can be made a day ahead. Store the apricots and the syrup separately in your refrigerator.
- Save the pits from the apricots for Noyau Ice Cream!
- If you’d like to garnish this dessert, try a sweetened crème fraiche or a cream whipped with the syrup and some of the apricot folded in.
- This compote would also be good over vanilla or honey ice cream.
- You will have extra syrup from this compote. You know what to do.
- This cornmeal cake would also be good with a compote of peaches and/or berries. Or cherries. Or figs. Or date compote.



Cornmeal Cake
8 to 10 servings

4 oz (1 stick) butter @ room temperature
1 C sugar
2 eggs @ room temperature
zest of 1/2 lemon
zest of 1/2 orange
1 t vanilla
1/2 C sour cream
1 1/4 C cake flour
1/4 C + 2 T cornmeal
2 t baking powder
1/4 t salt

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a 9” cake pan with butter and dust it with cornmeal.

Sift the cake flour, cornmeal, baking powder and the salt.

Beat butter until smooth. Add sugar and beat until light and creamy. This will take a few minutes. Scrape down the bowl after a minute or so. Add eggs one at a time. Add vanilla and citrus zest.

Add the sifted dry ingredients in thirds, alternating with half the sour cream, beginning and ending with the dry ingredients. Scrape down bowl halfway through this process. Just before it looks completely mixed, pull it off the mixer and finish combining by hand to avoid over mixing.

Pour into prepared pan and smooth over the top. Bake for about 30 minutes or until it tests done. Cool for about 15 minutes. Turn out onto platter and let cool completely.

Apricot Compote
adapted from In the Sweet Kitchen by Regan Daley
2 lbs of fresh apricots
3 C water
1 C sugar
1/3 C honey
1/2 vanilla bean
1 cinnamon stick
1 1/2 T lemon juice

Halve the apricots and place in a saucepan with the remaining ingredients. Bring to a low simmer. Do not boil. Poach until the fruit is very soft but still fairly intact.
Remove the fruit from the syrup and set aside to cool. Bring the syrup to a slow boil and reduce until it is a medium thick syrup. Cool.

Serve a slice of the cake with a good helping of the apricot compote and syrup.
This is nirvana.

Red Wine and Raspberry Sorbet

In the midst of a heat wave, what can I do but make sorbet? Much too hot to fire up the oven, that's for sure. And with fresh raspberries making a welcome appearance in so many markets this week, it’s time to enjoy their lusciousness without making too much fuss.

I decided to make a cool and quenching Raspberry Sorbet and dress it up a bit with the sophistication of a great red wine. David Lebovitz shares his recipe for just this thing in Room for Dessert and it’s really delicious. It’s a simple sorbet that really showcases the tartness of fresh raspberries and the depth of a good fruity wine all in one lovely dish. A cup of sugar lends just the right level of sweetness that does not overwhelm the clean bright burst of fruit. It’s a terrific way to enjoy a super light dessert that will definitely bring on a bit of cool in this very lovely moment of Spring. Just the sheer beauty of its rich color is enough to stop you right in your tracks. Exquisite.



Bench notes:
- Be sure to use a very fruity wine to enhance the flavor of the raspberries.
- If your berries are extremely tart, you may want to increase the sugar by a tablespoon or so.
- There is also a recipe for a Sangria Sorbet recipe in this book. Similar idea but it uses orange or tangerine juice instead of raspberries. We’ll have to try that one sometime soon.

Red Wine and Raspberry Sorbet
adapted from Room for Dessert by David Lebovitz
Makes about 1 quart

1 C sugar
3/4 C water
3 C red wine, a fruity Merlot, Zinfandel or Beaujolais
3 C raspberries

Place sugar, water and wine in a saucepan and bring to a boil. Continue to boil for 1 minute. Remove from heat and add the raspberries. Cover and steep for at least 1 hour.

Using a rubber spatula, push the mixture through a fine sieve into a container. Chill thoroughly.

Freeze in your ice cream maker.