We are still in the peak of peach season. Although it varies based on the year’s climate, peach season is at its peak during July and August. So it’s not too late to squeeze the most out of this juicy sweet fruit!

I love cooking and baking with in season ingredients because they are at the pinnacle of their deliciousness. When I was down in Delaware for my annual family reunion a couple weeks ago my Aunt Dottie grabbed some local peaches at a farmer’s market and asked me to make a peach dessert for dinner.

I realized I didn’t have a go-to peach dessert so I quickly started scouring the web for a recipe that would help the fresh peaches shine. When I stumbled across this recipe from Mel’s Kitchen Cafe I knew it was the one. Just reading the recipe made me drool as I imagined how light and refreshing it would taste. I also loved that it looked simple to whip up.

This peaches, blueberries and cream delight is aptly named. We know from my browned butter peach ice cream with graham cracker crumble that peaches and graham crackers are a tasty pair. This dessert starts with a subtly sweet and buttery no-bake graham cracker crust. Then a sturdy whipped cream is made and folded into the fresh peach slices and blueberries.

You can adapt this dessert to whatever fruit is your favorite or in stock at your local farmer’s market. Strawberries, plums or any other stone fruit and berries would work well. The next combination on my list is peaches and raspberries… mmm. Enjoy!

Peaches, Blueberries & Cream Delight

 

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Yield: 8-10 servings

Ingredients

for the crust

• 3 cups graham cracker crumbs, about 2 sleeves of graham crackers
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 12 tablespoons butter (1 ½ sticks), melted

for the filling

• 8 ounces light cream cheese, room temperature
• 1 ½ cups powdered sugar
• ½ teaspoon vanilla extract
• 2 cups heavy cream, chilled
• 5 fresh peaches, peeled, pitted and thinly sliced
• 1 cup fresh blueberries

Directions

for the crust

1. Combine the graham cracker crumbs and sugar in a medium bowl. Add the melted butter and mix until combined. Reserve ⅓ of the crumb mixture for topping the dessert. Press the remaining crumb mixture into the bottom of a 9” by 13” pan. Refrigerate while making the filling.

for the filling

1. In a large bowl beat the cream cheese and powdered sugar together until light with a hand mixer or a stand mixer. Beat in the vanilla.
2. Carefully pour in the heavy cream and beat on low. As the mixture starts to come together bring the speed up to medium-high and continue until the mixture is thick and airy.
3. Take the crust out of the fridge and spread a thin layer of the cream over the crust. Layer the sliced peaches on top, followed by the blueberries.
4. Scoop large blobs of cream onto the fruit and carefully bring together with your rubber spatula to cover the fruit. Continue adding the cream until the 9” by 13” pan is filled to the edges.
5. Sprinkle with the reserved graham cracker crumbs and cover with plastic wrap before returning to the fridge. Let sit in the fridge for 2-12 hours before serving.

3.2.1311

Lauren Uncategorized 0 Comments

I have made a terrible mistake. Truly awful, really. You probably already noticed and have been secretly scolding me, but I will confess anyway. I have been posting on Lemon & Mocha for six months and have yet to post a full-blown fresh lemon recipe. Whew, ok, now that the elephant in the blogosphere has been addressed I already feel a lot better. I know I was moments away from protest forums and lemon-lover blog trollers taking over so this recipe was posted just in time.

And I know once you taste this lemon curd tart with fresh berries you will forgive me because your mind will be so overloaded with delicious and joyful thoughts that you will forget I kept this recipe from you for so long. Lemon, like many other ingredients and flavors, took a while for me to cozy up to, but once I did, I fell madly in love. A romantic my-eyes-light-up-at-the-mention-of-its-name love, not an obsessive have-its-name-tattooed-on-my-chest-and-we-aren’t-even-exclusive love, just to clarify.

This tart is not only stunning, but incredibly easy, amazingly fresh and positively simple! If you’ve never had lemon curd, don’t let the name scare you away. It has the texture of pudding and will make you want to eat it with a spoon in the pantry closet so you don’t have to share. The lemon curd is sweet, but the tartness of the lemon flavor definitely pushes through to the forefront of your tastebuds. Paired with the flaky puff pastry, the sweetness of the berries and the light dusting of powdered sugar, this treat is the perfect fresh ending to a big holiday meal.

Lemon Curd Tart with Fresh Berries

 

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Yield: 12 servings

Ingredients

for the lemon curd

• ½ cup lemon juice
• 1 tablespoon lemon zest
• ½ cup sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, diced into small pieces

for the tart

• 1 sheet of puff pastry, defrosted according to package instructions
• ¾ cup blueberries
• ½ cup raspberries
• Powdered sugar, for dusting

Directions

for the lemon curd

1. In a medium saucepan, whisk together the lemon juice, lemon zest, sugar and eggs. Place the saucepan over medium-low heat and stir in the pieces of butter. Whisk the curd frequently until the curd is thick enough that it keeps the mark of the whisk when you touch it to the curd in the saucepan.
2. Transfer the lemon curd to a small bowl to cool. If there are small lumps of egg you can push the curd through a fine mesh sieve, but I typically skip this step. Cover the surface of the lemon curd with a piece of plastic wrap so that it’s completely touching the curd. Place in the fridge to cool.

for the tart

1. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and set aside.
2. Unfold the sheet of puff pastry and lay on the prepared baking sheet. Bake for 20 minutes or until the top is golden brown.
3. Let the baked puff pastry cool. Once the puff pastry is cool top generously with the lemon curd. Place the berries on top of the lemon curd then lightly dust with powdered sugar. To serve, cut into squares.

3.2.1263

Lauren Uncategorized 0 Comments

“What is this vision of deliciousness I see before me?” you ask? A chocolate hazelnut gelato pie in name, but it is so much more than that. There are layers involved and layers make things scrumptiously complex. The base of this pie is a lightly sweetened chocolate cookie crust. Resting on top of the crust lies a creamy stracciatella chocolate hazelnut gelato. Stracciatella is the Italian version of chocolate chip ice cream except there are no chips or chunks, just wispy bits of hardened chocolate throughout the gelato. The subtle hazelnut flavors breaks through the richness of the rest of the pie and brings it to a new level of decadence and addictiveness. Finally, the fudgey ganache topping speckled with toasted hazelnuts. Since my keyboard is still recovering from drooling on it while describing this ganache on Tuesday I’ll just say yum.

A couple months ago I brought this pie to a barbecue at my parents’ house. Having sampled the gelato I was excited to try the pie. The dessert received rave reviews, which I’m sure you guessed based on the uncharacteristically long description of it in the beginning of the post. The surprise of the night was that my dad claimed, and continues to claim to this day over two months later, that this was the best dessert he has ever eaten. That’s right, not one of the best, but the best.

Now my dad has a healthy ice cream obsession as is family tradition so you might be thinking well of course he liked it, it’s gelato. But you have to know that my dad is a creature of habit. Yes he might eat ice cream every single night and yes there were 12 half gallons of ice cream in his house on my last count, but they were all of the same three flavors. God forbid he run out ;-). He also has this extraordinary skill to pick through a dessert and consume only the ice cream portion, so the fact that he ate this pie in entirety and claimed it as the best dessert ever? That is what we call a food victory.

Chocolate Hazelnut Gelato Pie

 

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Yield: 10 servings

Ingredients

for the crust

• 6 ounces chocolate wafers
• 4 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• Pinch of salt

for the gelato

• 1½ cups toasted hazelnuts
• 1 cup whole milk
• 2 cups heavy cream
• ¾ cup sugar
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 4 ounces milk chocolate, chopped
• 5 large egg yolks
• ⅛ teaspoon vanilla extract
• 5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, chopped

for the topping

• 1 batch chocolate ganache
• ¼ cup toasted hazelnuts

Directions

for the crust

1. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
2. Pulse the chocolate wafers in a food processor until fine crumbs. Add the butter, sugar and salt pulse until well combined.
3. Press into the bottom and up the sides of a springform pans.
4. Bake for 10 minutes then cool on a wire rack.

for the gelato

1. If the hazelnuts are not toasted, bake them in an even layer on a baking sheet at 350 degrees F for 10-12 minutes. Let cool.
2. Rub the hazelnuts to try and get rid of as much of the skins as possible. Use a food processor to finely chop the toasted hazelnuts.
3. In a medium sauce pan heat the milk, 1 cup of the cream, sugar and salt until warm. Once warm remove from the heat.
4. Add the chopped hazelnuts to the warmed mixture, cover and let sit at room temperature for 1 hour.
5. Place the milk chocolate in a large bowl.
6. In a medium saucepan heat the remaining 1 cup of cream until it starts to boil. Remove from the heat and pour over the milk chocolate.
7. Stir the chocolate and cream until the chocolate is melted and smooth.
8. In the medium saucepan used to heat the cream, place a mesh strainer over top then pour the hazelnut mixture through the strainer into the medium saucepan. Push on the hazelnuts with a wooden spoon to try and get as much liquid as possible. Discard the hazelnuts.
9. Rewarm the hazelnut liquid over medium heat. While the liquid is heating whisk together the egg yolks in a medium bowl. Once the hazelnut liquid is warm, slowly pour the liquid into the bowl with the egg yolks, whisking constantly, to temper the eggs. Pour the warmed eggs and liquid back into the saucepan.
10. Still on medium heat, stir constantly until the mixture thickens and coats the spatula.
11. Place the bowl with the melted milk chocolate mixture over an ice bath and set a mesh strainer on top. Pour the egg mixture through the mesh strainer into the large bowl. Add the vanilla and stir until cool.
12. Once the mixture is cool chill in the refrigerator completely. Once cold, pour into your ice cream maker following the manufacturer's directions.
13. While the mixture is in the ice cream maker, melt the bittersweet chocolate over a double boiler and stir until it's smooth. Transfer the chocolate into a measuring cup with a pouring spout.
14. During the last couple minutes of churning in the ice cream maker pour the melted bittersweet chocolate into the ice cream maker in a thin stream to create the stracciatella.
15. When the gelato is done churning carefully spoon it into the prepared crust and smooth the top. Freeze until no longer soft.

for the topping

1. Take the pie out of the freezer and carefully pour the prepared ganache over the top of the gelato. Smooth the top with a spatula then sprinkle with the toasted hazelnuts.
2. Freeze for several hours or overnight. Remove from the freezer 15-20 minutes before serving.

Notes

I use Ghiradelli chocolate bars.

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Lauren Uncategorized 0 Comments