Quadruple Berry Pie

Quick! Make this now! Before berries disappear from the shelves, the weather turns cool, everybody starts wearing boots and you have to work out how to use your iphone/blackberry wearing gloves. Now that you've been sufficiently warned...you might have seen some triple berry pies out there. But triple is nothing to me. I see your triple berry pie, and I raise you one quadruple berry pie. Strawberries, raspberries, blackberries and blueberries.

Blackberry Cobbler

I know some of you might be thinking: Amy - where is all the chocolate, the peanut butter, the cupcakes, the cookies, the frosting and the oatmeal?! Well, the answer is, it's all coming, I promise. But there are just a few more weeks left of summer (gasp, I know!) and before long the juicy blackberries, sweet raspberries, tart blueberries and everything else wonderful in the produce aisle will be just a memory. A sweet, sweet memory. Until next summer of course.

Easy Jam Tart?

I really don't like to follow instructions. I always read them, and then choose to follow or ignore them at will. When it comes to recipes, it generally concerns what ingredients/tools/pans I have on hand. Which, depending on where I'm baking, can be quite limited. That's how I've ended up using a Pam lid for a cookie cutter, dropping my cake, and having not-really-lime-tasting lime cookies.

It's also how I ended up with this slightly deformed David Lebovitz Jam Tart.
The original recipe calls for a tart pan or springform pan, neither of which I had on hand. The closest thing I had was a 9-inch foil pie pan. So of course I went on with the recipe.
I think the pan substitute doomed me in ways I hadn't forseen. The slant of the sides of the pan produced a much too thick crust - as did the too-small pan. That wouldn't be so bad with a standard pie crust, but this cornmeal version was a little heavy with the added bulk.
Then there was the topping - I love the idea of topping a tart with discs of crust, but for a recipe labeled "easy jam tart," this was a little labor intensive. I found cutting the discs quite difficult even when frozen - though again, this was likely due to my lack of even a remotely decent knife.

Anyway, while I didn't love this dessert my friends certainly seemed to, most even going for seconds, so there was obviously some redeeming factors. I'd be happy to experiment with the formula again with some tweaks and changes - plus a real pan!

Tip of the Day: A sharp, thin-bladed serrated knife like this one works best for cutting slices off a log, like in this recipe or most standard icebox-cookie recipes.

Recipe: (from David Lebovitz)

9 tablespoons butter or margarine, softened
1/2 cup sugar
1 egg
1 egg yolk
1/8 teaspoon almond extract
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup stone-ground cornmeal
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
2 teaspoons baking powder
1 3/4 cups apricot, raspberry or other jam

Beat together butter and sugar until well-combined. Mix in the egg, egg yolk and almond extract.
Gradually add in the flour, cornmeal, salt and baking powder, just until combined.
Divide the dough into 2/3 and 1/3. Press the 2/3 into a disc and refrigerate, and roll the remaining dough into a 2-inch log and freeze it.
After a 1/2 hour press the refrigerated dough into a 9 or 10-inch tart pan.
Spread the jam evenly on top.
Slice discs from the frozen log and lay on top of the jam. Sprinkle with sugar - coarse is best.
Bake at 375 F for 20 to 25 minutes or until golden brown.

Blackberry Cobbler

In the summertime, the fresh fruit that's available just makes me dream of pies, crumbles, buckles, and desserts galore. So I set my sights on this blackberry cobbler, and I was not disappointed.
One of the things that drew me to this recipe was that it called for you to do the mixing in the very pan you bake it in. Amazing! Recipes that actually cater to laziness. I'm in heaven.

So anyway, in the pan you mix the flour, baking powder, salt, milk and melted butter. Notice something missing? Yup, no sugar. That's because the sugar comes in later...
...with these babies. The recipe calls for you to let the 2 1/2 cups of blackberries in 1/2 to 1 cup of sugar for ten minutes before adding them.
After reading through a lot of the comments on recipezaar, I decided to add a little sugar to the batter as well, and then used about 3/4 cup of sugar with the blackberries. However when I added the berries to the batter, I had a lot of sugar left over in the bottom of the bowl. I sprinkled a little over the top and discarded the rest.
It looked delicious going in the oven and even more so coming out, but the moment of truth was biting into it...
....and it was good. Truth is, I'm not really sure exactly what a cobbler is, but after some googling, it appears to be a biscuit like dough with fresh fruit on top, and the dough rises and covers the fruit. I guess that's what happened here, but either way this was a winning dish with almost no clean up!

Tip of the Day: Most berries grow mold easily, so use fresh ones within a day or so, or freeze them. Also don't wash them until you're about to eat or use them - they're more likely to go moldy when wet.

Recipe: (via Recipezaar)

1 cup flour
2 tsps baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup milk
1/2 cup melted butter
2 1/2 cups blackberries
3/4 cup sugar, divided

Mix blackberries and 1/2 cup of sugar, and let sit for 20 minutes or until fruit syrup forms.
Mix together flour, baking powder, salt, milk and 1/4 cup of sugar in ungreased 8 inch square pan.
Stir in melted butter until blended.
Spoon blackberries evenly over the batter. Sprinkle some of the excess sugar on top.
Bake at 375 degrees for 45-55 minutes or until dough rises and is golden.

Revisiting Shortbread Bars

Those of you who have been around a while (hey mom!) might remember this recipe. It was delicious and rich and satisfying. And I swore I would never make it again.
Without a food processor that is. Hi again!
That's because the secret behind this recipe is to freeze the dough and then grate it into the pan before baking. It makes it light and fluffy and oh-so yummy. But at my first attempt, there was no lovely food processor present, and, well, it was messy and exhausting.

But I tried again! And this time, since I know my raspberry addiction isn't necessarily contagious...with blackberry!

Look at all the little dough pieces. And the lack of effort. The combination is exhilarating.
The results were good. And much easier. This is really a pretty simple recipe (not too many ingredients) but it does call for some thinking ahead with the dough freezing.

Mmm that's alot of butter. I feel like Paula Deen. More butter y'all.
The only secret here was to make sure to freeze the pieces in sizes that will fit inside the tube of your food processor. Though the original recipe (here) calls for you to freeze it in two pieces - half for the top of the bars and half for the bottom - I did it in four instead.
Overall these are a great bar and I'd recommend them to anyone - anyone with a food processor that is.

Side note: this recipe calls for four egg yolks, which leaves me with, of course, four egg whites.
Hmmmmm what to do, what to do? Stay tuned to find out!

Recipe: (from Recipezaar)

1 cup (2 sticks) butter
2 egg yolks
1 cup sugar
2 cups flour
1 tsp baking powder
1/8 tsp salt
1/2 cup blackberry or raspberry jam

Cream the butter until light and fluffy. Add in egg yolks and beat until well mixed.
Pour in the sugar, flour, baking powder and salt.
Turn the dough out onto a surface and form into two balls.
Wrap in saran wrap and freeze for two hours or overnight.
(Here is where you would make sure your pieces are food-processor sized).
Grate one of the balls and lightly press into a greased 8 inch square pan.
Spread the jam on top until 1/2 inch from side.
Top with remaining grated dough.
Bake on 350 F for 30 to 40 minutes or until light golden brown.
Cool in pan.