Apricot and Raspberry Crumble Tart

Desserts take on a new and wonderful character in the late summer when the orchards, fields and markets are full of fresh, voluptuous fruits. You’ll hear people who answer the question, “What’s your favorite dessert?” with, “Oh, I just love a really nice, fresh piece of fruit.” Those people drive me crazy!

A nice fresh piece of fruit all on its own is more like a salad to me. To take something like this lovely bunch of apricots I recently got my hands on and make them dessert, I believe they should be applied in the tart/crisp hybrid, a sort of crumble-topped tart, from Seasonal Fruit Desserts by Deborah Madison.

It was tempting to keep these plump, smooth, soft apricots around just for touching (I don’t get many visitors). This tart, however, with its almond-loaded crust, some of which is mixed a little differently and crumbled on top of the fruit mixture, proved even more tantalizing. The crust is easy to whip together with a food processor and presses easily into a tart pan. After that, apricots and raspberries, sweetened just a bit, are piled in and then topped with the crumb mixture.

As beautiful as all this sounds, I was skeptical most of the way through the process. Fresh apricots, even when ripe and flavorful, can also be quite sour, and these were no exception. Surely the ¼ cup of brown sugar in the filling wasn’t going to be enough. Surely this great pile of fruit was going to boil over or turn into a sloppy juice that leaked everywhere and turned the crust to mush. And then, as I peeked in at the baking tart, I was convinced that the apricots weren’t going to soften or release any juices at all.

Happily, I was wrong about all of that stuff. Each bite was all about the flavors of the fruit and almonds without any tooth-aching sweetness (which I wasn’t worried about) or wincing sourness (which I kind of was). There was just the right amount of thickened juices to hold the fruit together and allow the tart to be served as slices, rather than bowlfuls as a crisp or cobbler would be (although there’s still plenty of room for an accompanying scoop of vanilla ice cream). This tart/crisp hybrid, all in all, is just right.

I would love to try this with other fruits, such as peaches or plums, since fresh apricots are harder to find. I’m afraid, however, that these juicier fruits might make the too-wet tart I was afraid of. With the apricots and raspberries, this tart is as close to perfect as I’ve experienced in a long time, if ever. Really. It’s that good. Perfectly baked apricots, slumped, juicy raspberries and a crisp, almond-infused crust and topping. That sentence doesn’t need a verb, unless it’s “drool.” And if you think dessert is a nice piece of fruit, just try passing on a serving of this real dessert.

Apricot and Raspberry Tart with Crumble Topping
Adapted from Seasonal Fruit Desserts by Deborah Madison

for the crust and topping:
½ cup almonds
1/3 cup light brown sugar
¼ teaspoon fine salt, divided
1 cup all-purpose flour
1/3 cup whole wheat pastry flour
1 stick (8 tablespoons) cold butter, cut into chunks
1 tablespoon water
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
½ teaspoon almond extract
1 egg yolk

for the filling:
4 cups fresh apricots, cut into quarters
1 cup raspberries
2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
¼ cup light brown sugar

1. Preheat oven to 375 F. To make the crust and topping, place the almonds, 1/3 cup brown sugar and 1/8 teaspoon salt in a food processor. Process until the almonds are very finely ground. Remove ½ cup of the almond mixture and place it in a medium-size bowl. Set the bowl aside.

2. Add the 1 cup all-purpose flour and the whole wheat pastry flour to the mixture in the food processor. Pulse to combine. Add the butter and process until the mixture forms coarse crumbs.

3. In a small bowl or measuring cup, combine the water, vanilla and almond extracts and egg yolk. Whisk or stir together with a fork to combine. Turn on the food processor and gradually add this liquid mixture to the dough with the machine running. Continue processing until the dough comes together into a moist but crumbly ball.

4. Remove ½ cup of the dough and add it to the bowl of reserved almond mixture you removed earlier. Combine the mixtures with a fork or your hands to make coarse crumbs. This will be the crumb topping mixture. Set aside.

5. Press the remaining tart dough into a 9-inch tart pan (I used one with a removable bottom). Use your hands and press the dough as evenly on the bottom and up the sides of the pan as you can. If the dough is too soft to do this easily, refrigerate it for a while until it is firm.

6. In a large bowl combine the apricots, raspberries, 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour and ¼ cup brown sugar. Stir gently to coat the fruit.

7. Pour or spoon the mixture into the crust in the tart pan. Arrange the fruit if necessary to make it fit snugly in the pan. It will make a mound, but it should stay together. Sprinkle the topping mixture evenly over the fruit.

8. Place the tart pan on a sheet pan (this will make it easier to handle and catch any drips) and place it in the oven. Bake for about 30 minutes. Check the tart and if the topping is already well-browned, cover loosely with foil. Continue baking about 15 minutes more. The crust and topping should be nicely browned and the fruit will have released some juices. Cool before serving. Serve with a scoop of vanilla ice cream or a dollop of whipped cream if desired.

Makes 6-8 servings. The tart is best served soon after cooling when the crust and topping are crisp. You can cover and refrigerate leftovers, however, to serve later if you don’t mind a still delicious if slightly soggy crust.

Other recipes like this one: Cherry Plum Crisp, Plum Upside Down Yogurt Cake

One year ago: Plum Upside Down Yogurt Cake

Two years ago: Pasta with Cherry Tomatoes, Basil and Olives

Seasonal Pizza: Corn and Poblano Chiles

Most of the time when I make a pizza, it’s loaded with pretty traditional ingredients (for an American-style pizza, that is): pepperoni, Italian sausage, bell peppers, olives and the like. And of course melty mozzarella cheese and perhaps a sprinkling of another cheese such as Parmesan, Romano, provolone or Colby-Jack. Customized to our dining pleasure. Delicious. Season-less.

Recently, however, I took our weekend pizza on a more seasonal ride, covering it with grilled corn and poblano chiles. I swapped out my usual pizza sauce (also in this post) for prepared salsa to match the spirit and set aside the mozzarella in favor of pepper Jack cheese and smoked cheddar.

Since I used the grill to pre-cook the corn and poblanos and, of course, used a homemade pizza crust, this pizza did involve a lot of individual steps before it was ready to eat. The corn and poblanos can be grilled (or roasted if you don’t want to use a grill) well ahead of time, and the pizza crust should be made the day before for best flavor and texture. You can even have the crust partially-baked and ready to go if you really want to save time on cooking day. I think the corn, cream and scallion mixture could be made ahead and refrigerated, but I haven’t tried this myself.

Poblano chiles are milder than jalapenos, serranos or other small chiles, but I still recommend that you do not underestimate them. They’re far spicier than the green bell peppers that they somewhat resemble, and I need to use rubber gloves to deal with them if I want to avoid burning skin. (This irritation usually shows up long after I’m done cleaning up the kitchen, unless I touch my eye. Ouch!) A bite of a poblano slice on the pizza is pretty zingy, and if you prefer milder dishes, I’d recommend grilling or roasting red or green bell peppers instead. I think the pizza would still be delicious. There are some more details and photos of roasting and peeling peppers in this post.

The short version of the taste story of this pizza is that we loved it. The long version is that we loooooooved it. It was deliciously spicy and smoky and, since I cooked the corn with heavy cream, garlic and scallions after grilling it, rich and creamy as well. The combination of corn, cream, cheese and chiles, with a little tomato on top to brighten both the color and flavor is a complicated 5-way match made in pizza heaven.

Corn and Poblano Chile Pizza
Instead of using the grill, you could roast the peppers in the oven and toast the corn in the butter (step 3) before adding the rest of the ingredients.

4 large ears corn (mine were small so I used more), husks and silk removed
2 poblano chile peppers
1 tablespoon butter
½ cup chopped scallions
1 clove garlic, minced
½ teaspoon coarse (kosher) salt
¼ cup heavy cream
1 recipe whole wheat pizza crust dough prepared through step 4 (you could use all-white flour crust)
¾ cup prepared salsa
½ cup shredded Monterey Jack or pepper Jack cheese
½ cup shredded smoked cheddar cheese
about 10 cherry tomatoes, halved
2 tablespoons finely-chopped cilantro, optional
sour cream to serve, optional

1. Preheat a grill. Add the corn cobs and poblano chiles to the grill and cook until the corn is browned in several places and the skin of the chiles is charred and blistered. Remove the corn from the grill and set aside to cool. Remove the chiles and place them in a bowl. Cover with plastic wrap and let stand 10 minutes.

2. Preheat the oven with a pizza stone to 450 F. When the corn is cool enough to handle cut the kernels from the cob and set them aside. Remove the chiles from the bowl and peel off their skins. (I recommend using rubber gloves.) Remove the stem and seeds and slice the chiles into strips. Set aside.

3. Melt the butter in a medium-size skillet over medium heat. Add the corn kernels, scallions, garlic and salt. Saute about 5-8 minutes or until just beginning to brown, stirring frequently. Add the heavy cream. Cook and stir until the mixture has thickened. Remove from the heat and set aside.

4. Partially bake the pizza crust on the pizza stone at 450 F for 5-8 minutes or until the crust is puffed, no longer appears doughy and has begun to brown a little.

5. Remove the crust from the oven. Spread the salsa evenly over the crust. Combine the Monterey Jack and smoked cheddar. Sprinkle about 2/3 of the cheese mixture over the salsa.

6. Spread the corn mixture over the cheese. Arrange the poblano strips over the corn mixture. Top with remaining cheese mixture. Arrange the cherry tomato halves over the cheese.

7. Return the pizza to the oven and bake about 10-15 minutes or until the cheese is melted and the crust is brown. Remove from the oven and top with cilantro if desired. Let the pizza stand about 5 minutes before slicing and serving. Serve each slice with a dollop of sour cream if desired.

Makes 1 10-12 inch pizza, about 4 servings. Leftovers can be wrapped and refrigerated. They’re great reheated in a toaster oven.


Other recipes like this one: Pizza Any Way You Like It, Corn and Green Onion Tart with Bacon

One year ago: Pasta with Yellow Squash, Corn and Bacon

Two years ago: Summer Squash Casserole with Basil and Onion

Whole Wheat Pizza Dough

I must admit, I’ve been holding out on you a little bit. This has to do with homemade pizza, specifically the crust. Sure, I still make it just about every week, but I’ve manipulated the recipe just a little and bumped up my crust’s Whole Food Quotient (WFQ). Really, it’s as simple as swapping out one of the cups of all-purpose flour for whole wheat flour.

This new and improved crust is just as easy to make (I recommend a heavy-duty mixer with a dough hook), just as crisp and at least as delicious. In fact, I’ve begun to find it even more delicious than the all white flour version, simply because my taste buds have come to expect the flavor of whole grains. I no longer even think about this being a partly whole-grain crust. I just know the pizza is delicious!

I’ve found that a good place to start adding more whole grains to your diet, if you’re into that kind of thing, is to replace some of the refined flour with whole grain flour in a reliable recipe, one that you already know is good. I substitute no more than half of the white flour, and often more like one-third, the first time around. This has worked pretty well for me when adding whole wheat pastry flour to muffins, quick bread loaves and some cakes and a multigrain flour mixture to baguettes as well as whole wheat flour in this pizza crust.

White flour contains more gluten and therefore will help hold your baked goods together. If you go all whole grain, the result can be a crumbly cake or a brick for a bread loaf. Also, the stronger flavors of whole grains might take some getting used to if you’re really in touch with your inner Wonder Bread child. Just take it easy. Don’t overdo it. Ease your way into making it all more whole. Start with something easy, or at least easy to enjoy. And covering your higher WFQ concoction with pepperoni, Italian sausage and lots of cheese (or grilled corn, poblano chiles and cherry tomatoes as I did recently) can only help the transition go a little more smoothly.

(For more on getting more whole grains into your baked goods without sacrificing the least bit of deliciousness, check out Good to the Grain by Kim Boyce. If my metabolism could handle the extra load, I’d be baking my way through this whole book!)



Whole Wheat Pizza Crust
I use a heavy-duty mixer with a dough hook. You could probably mix and knead this dough by hand, but it would take much longer than your average loaf of bread.

1 teaspoon active dry yeast
1 tablespoon sugar
¾ cup warm water (about 100 F, it should feel warm, but not scalding to the touch)
1 cup whole wheat flour
1 ¼ cups all-purpose flour, plus more if necessary
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 teaspoon salt
cornmeal for dusting the pizza peel

1. Combine the yeast, sugar and water in the bowl of a heavy-duty mixer. Let stand for 5 minutes, or until the yeast is foamy.

2. Add whole wheat flour, about ¾ cup all-purpose flour, olive oil and salt and mix with the dough hook on low speed. When a wet dough forms, add a little more flour. Increase the mixing speed (just one notch) and knead the dough until it is firm and stretchy, about 10 minutes, adding as much of the remaining flour (or more if needed) as you need to keep the dough from being wet and sticky.

3. Grease a medium-sized bowl or spray it with cooking spray. Form the finished dough into a ball and place it in the bowl. Spray or grease the top of the dough ball and place a piece of plastic wrap on top of the dough. Cover the bowl with a towel and place it in the refrigerator. Allow the dough to slowly rise in the refrigerator at least 12 hours. (If you don’t have that kind of time, you could let the dough rise at room temperature at least an hour before using. It will probably be less easy to handle, and have a less complex flavor.)

4. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and let stand for a few hours, or until it comes up to about room temperature. Punch down the dough and let it rest for about 5 minutes. Stretch or roll the dough into a 10-12-inch (approximately) circle (approximately), and place it on a wooden peel (or a pan) dusted with cornmeal. (If the dough really resists stretching, let it stand, covered for another 5 minutes or so and try again.) Cover the shaped dough with a towel and let stand for 30 minutes.

5. About 20 minutes before you are ready to bake, place a pizza stone on the middle rack of the oven and preheat the oven to 450 F. (If you do not have a pizza stone, simply preheat the oven. You will probably bake the pizza on a pan.)

6. To par-bake the crust, carefully slide the unbaked crust from the peel onto the preheated stone. Bake at 450 F for 5-8 minutes, or until the crust begins to puff up and no longer appears doughy. It may even be beginning to brown in places. Remove from the oven and top and bake as desired. You could also allow the par-baked crust to cool completely, wrap it well and freeze it until ready to make pizza.

Makes a crust for 1 10-12 inch pizza.


Other recipes like this one: Pizza Crust Dough (the all white flour version), Naan with Whole Wheat Flour, Sweet Pumpkin Focaccia 

One year ago: Spicy Potato and Tomato Gratin with Caramelized Onions

Two years ago: Cold Cucumber Soup

Sweet Melon Soup

In general, I don’t suppose fresh melons need any fiddling, tinkering or messing around. They’re sweet and juicy and slices, cubes, or balls of melon are a side dish, dessert or snack all on their own. I, of course, don’t leave well enough alone. I want something even more interesting. I want a recipe.  don't worry.  This one's easy.

I’m not the type to put melon in a savory dish like gazpacho or cucumber salad or to wrap wedges with prosciutto. It’s not that I’m not adventurous. It’s that I’ve tried some of these melon treatments, and I didn’t like them. My loss, I’m sure.

This year, I wanted to try some of the sweet recipes I’ve collected over the years based on melon purees. There was a sweet melon dessert soup that was on my mind, but I looked at that recipe, looked at what I had on hand, and decided I wasn’t going to be following that recipe all that closely.

Speaking of what I had, my CSA box last week held a Galia melon. A look and a taste will leave one with no surprise that the Galia is a honeydew-cantaloupe hybrid. It has pale green flesh that tastes perhaps a little more like cantaloupe that honeydew. The flesh is smooth and firm and lends itself rather nicely to being pureed.

I sweetened my melon soup with a touch of honey, punched it up with a handful of mint and a squeeze of lime juice and spiked the melon flavor even more with a splash of Midori, a bright green-colored melon liqueur. The flavor added by my homegrown peppermint leaves was a fabulous partner to the pure and heightened (by the Midori) melon flavor. It, along with the acidity of the lime juice kept this dessert soup refreshing rather than overly sweet and cloying.

A honeydew melon would be a great substitute for the Galia I used, as would a cantaloupe. I will say that since the mint and especially the Midori are so green, I cannot vouch for the pleasantness of the color of a soup made with the pink-orange flesh of cantaloupe. It might just turn an unappetizing shade of tan or light brown. I’d like to try this with a watermelon, too, but I’m not sure how the difference in the texture of the watermelon might change the final product. Hey, just tossing ideas around, but perhaps a watermelon puree like this could be strained, poured into little glasses, and served as a refreshing beverage. And if you spike that beverage with a little more Midori, and perhaps a splash of vodka or rum…well, I’m thinking the last weeks of summer might just be a little happier.

Sweet Melon Soup with Mint and Midori

4 cups seeded, peeled and chopped honeydew, muskmelon, or Galia melon (about half of a medium-size melon)
2 tablespoons fresh mint leaves
1 tablespoon honey (or to taste)
1 tablespoon lime juice
2 tablespoons Midori (melon liqueur)
pinch salt

1. Place all of the ingredients in a food processor or blender. Process until very smooth. Taste and adjust the flavors by adding more honey or lime juice if desired. Chill. Stir or whisk the soup before serving to redistribute the separated pulp.

Makes about 4 servings.


One year ago: Layered Brownie Ice Cream Dessert

Two years ago: Zucchini and Mint Frittata with Tomatoes on Top