Peach-Raspberry Tart with Cornmeal Crust

Fun Fact Number 1: August 11 happens to be National Raspberry Tart Day in the United States. 

Fun Fact Number 2: I was planning on making a peach and raspberry tart on August 11 ANYWAYS!

Don't you love it when life just lines up like that? But please do not feel that you must wait for an irrational National Food Holiday to bake a delicious summer fruit tart. You should do it just because you want to. And because you have a bounty of ripe fruit begging to be eaten! Like that is a problem.

I love summer for all of the fresh fruit! It seems like there is so much of it around and it tastes SO MUCH BETTER when it's in season. I want all the fruits. I made this tart with just peaches and raspberries but you could really use whatever fruit you have on hand. Apricots, nectarines, strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, pitted cherries... You could use a combination of fruits or just one fruit...choose your own fruity adventure.

The crust has cornmeal in it, woah! It pairs nicely with the summery fruit and adds a little crunch in texture. Not feeling the cornmeal? You can replace it and just use all flour. But cornmeal is kind of exciting! Is my life that boring that I get excited about cornmeal? No, I'm gonna go with cornmeal is really exciting. What? You are not excited about cornmeal? Weird.

PS This was my first debut of my NEW TART PAN SET WITH REMOVABLE BOTTOMS which I have been dying to use since I got them as a gift like 6 months ago... finally! It feels darn good. Let there be TARTS! I can also sense a quiche in my future... my pie senses tell me. And my pie senses are quite keen these days...

Peach-Raspberry Tart with Cornmeal Crust

Recipe barely adapted from Martha Stewart

Crust:

• 3/4 cup all purpose flour
• 1/2 cup corn meal
• 3 tbsp. granulated sugar
• 1 egg yolk
• 3.5 oz butter (7 tbsp.) cut into cubes
• 1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Filling:

• 3 peaches cut into slices
• 3/4 cup fresh raspberries
• 2 tbsp. brown sugar
• 2 tbsp. granulated sugar
• 1 scant tbsp. turbinado sugar for sprinkling

Directions:

1. Place all the ingredients for the crust into a food processor and whiz it up! Doesn't get much easier than that. Dump the mixture into an ungreased 8 inch tart pan with removable bottom. (If you don't have a tart pan you can also use an 8 inch springform pan. Press the crust mixture evenly into the pan and up the sides. Place the tart pan onto a rimmed baking sheet. Bake the crust at 400F for about 15 minutes until it is puffed and slightly golden. Remove the crust from the oven and press it down with an offset spatula. Reduce the oven temperature to 375F
2. In a medium bowl, toss together the peach slices, raspberries, brown and granulated sugar.
3. Pour the fruit filling mixture into the partially baked crust and sprinkle the top with some turbinado sugar. Place back in the oven to bake for another 30-35 minutes, or until fruit is tender and bubbly and the edge of the crust is golden brown.
4. Remove from the oven and move tart pan to a wire rack to cool.
5. Serve warm or at room temperature and VANILLA ICE CREAM :) (obviously)

Enjoy!

<3 Lari

Peach and Berries Cobbler-Cake

So, if you happened read this older post, you will recall Anna Olson's monthly Bake Off contest on www.foodnetwork.ca. And you may know how much I love this contest, not only because it gives me another excuse to bake, but because last month... I WON!! I know, I cannot believe it. I still can't. But it is true, and I won my very own KITCHEN AID MIXER... Jaw to the floor. Holy cow I am so stoked about life.

Any who... even though I have already won, I really enjoy participating in the bake off, so I will continue to try out the recipes and post them! This is the picture I sent in along with my description for The August Bake Off: Peach and Berry Cobbler!

Peach Cobbler is the perfect August dessert! And adding berries to it just makes life more exciting. I must say, I used a rather tall 8 cup baking dish, so the cobbler turned into more of a cobbler cake... But I think that was a Happy Mistake.
Another problem I ran into was that the peaches we had bought we SO not ripe, but we had to make do with them because our guests were arriving too soon to buy more! Well great news, turns out even unripe peaches magically transform into tender delicious ones when baked into a cobbler.
I chose to serve this cobbler with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream and homemade butterscotch sauce, to a few friends and family members on our back candle-lit-porch in the evening... Ah, that is how summer should be. Thanks Anna! My dessert night was a success! (after everyone left, I helped myself to a
second bowl...) :)

Happy Baking!

Peach and Berries Cobbler-Cake

Recipe adapted* from Anna Olson

(*You could say I adapted it... or you could say that I made some happy mistakes along the way which led this to not become the exact recipe that she used... I'm gonna go with adapted.)

• 6 cups fresh peaches, peeled and sliced
• 1 cup fresh raspberries
• 1/2 cup fresh blueberries
• 3 tbsp sugar
• 1/4 tsp cinnamon

Toss sliced peaches, raspberries and blueberries with the sugar and cinnamon and put into an 8 cup baking dish. (the deeper your dish, the more cake-like this cobbler will become. This is what happened to me and it worked... but not what the original recipe looks like!)

• 2 eggs
• 1/2 cup sugar
• 6 tbsp melted butter
• 2/3 cup milk
• 2 cups flour
• 2 tbsp cornmeal
• 4 tsp baking powder
• 1/2 tsp salt

Whisk eggs, milk and sugar in a bowl. Whisk in milk. Sift the flour, cornmeal, baking powder and salt over the wet ingredients and stir to combine. Dollop this mixture over the peaches and berries. Mine ended up completely covering the fruit, which turned out to be okay! But Anna tells you to leave spaces for the fruit to peak through. Again, depends on your baking dish. Sprinkle a little bit of cinnamon-sugar over the cobbler and pop it into a 375 oven (350 for me!)The recipe says to bake for 35-45 minutes... mine took nearly double that... but just keep an eye on it! Every oven is "special and unique" in its own little way.

=)

Serve with Vanilla ice cream and butterscotch sauce.

<3 Lari

Go Canada! Bronze Medal Peach Shortcake

I love olympics!

I also love soccer!

I also love Canada!

And I also love this peach shortcake recipe!

I was so excited when the Canadian Women's Soccer team won bronze, that I did a fist pump into the air. The only problem is that I was running on my treadmill in my low-ceilinged-basement when it happened, and forgot how close to the ceiling I really was. I may have made a small dent... I probably looked like a maniac, laughing and crying with joy as small white plaster ceiling bits showered over me, all whilst still running on the treadmill.

 Their medal winning performance deserved a suitable dessert! It also helped that I had many peaches in my fridge begging to be turned into something glorious. And what a glorious dessert this was!

Butterscotch Assault.

I followed the recipe, and it was divine. The only change I made was to cut the biscuits into maple leaf shapes in celebration of Canada's epic win! I also did not peel the peaches for the peach slices... because I am lazy. Also the red looks pretty. Also, who would want to waste any part of a perfect peach? And the homemade butterscotch sauce just ties everything together wonderfully.

<3 Lari