There is something magical about summer when the markets begin to deliver their crops of ripe stone fruit: Peaches, nectarines, apricots, plums, and cherries. Stone fruits reach their peak under long, sun-filled days of summer. It's a season that involves farmers' markets and filling baskets with colorful and beautifully scented fruit.

This is a delicious, easy-to-make cake made with fresh stone fruit submerged is a moist, buttery cake. It's a great way to use up excess stone fruit in a delectable way. You can swap out the plums for just about any stone fruit like apricots, peaches, nectarines, or cherries. I've made this recipe a few times one time using plums, another time pluots, and another time with apricots (maybe my favorite). I gave a half cake to a neighbor who said a slice of this cake with coffee was the perfect breakfast on a July morning. You can also serve it for dessert with a scoop of vanilla ice cream. 

Plan ahead as you need the eggs, milk, and butter to be at room temperature. 

Plum Cake

Ingredients:

• Flour - 1 1/2 cups all purpose flour (180g)
• Baking powder - 1 1/2 teaspoons
• Cinnamon - 1/2 teaspoon
• Salt - 1/2 teaspoon
• Butter - 1/2 cup, softened (1 stick)
• Sugar - 3/4 cup, plus more for sprinkling
• Eggs - 2 large, room temperature
• Vanilla extract - 2 teaspoons
• Almond extract - 1/4 teaspoon (optional)
• Milk - 1/2 cup, room temperature
• Plums - 3-4 plums, about a pound, pitted and halved or quartered

Instructions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350°F. Light spray a 9-inch springform baking pan or line a springform pan with parchment paper.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together the flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt.
3. In a large bowl, beat the room temperature butter and sugar with an electric hand mixer on medium speed until pale and fluffy, about 4 minutes. 
4. Add the eggs, one at a time, making sure it's well-incorporated before adding the second egg. Add vanilla extract (and optional almond extract). Scrape down the bowl as needed.
5. With the hand mixer on low, gradually add the flour mixture in parts. Alternate between adding some flour and some milk. Mix until all ingredients are incorporated. 
6. Transfer the batter to the prepared baking pan and smooth the top with a spatula.
7. Arrange the plum slices skin side up on top of the batter. Sprinkle generously with sugar, if desired.
   
   
   
   
    
8. 
   Bake for 50-55 minutes or until the top is golden brown and a toothpick inserted into the center comes out clean. 
9. Let cake cool down in the pan for at least 10 minutes. 
10. Run a knife around the edge before releasing the spring, and remove the outer ring. Let cake cool completely before transferring it to a serving plate. 

A version I made with apricots. 

Pumpkin Flan

Let me introduce you to "A Brown Kitchen." This is a featured article that runs in the San Francisco Chronicle and it's written by Oakland-based aspiring chef and photographer, Nik Sharma. He has a food blog at A Brown Table. The SF Chronicle has been featuring Nik usually in their Sunday Food section as a guest writer. He recently quit his corporate job to pursue his passions of cooking and photography.

It was his photography that first caught my eye. He shoots really interesting food photographs and his use of light/darkness and his use of narrow depth of field (Translation: photos where a sliver of the shot is in focus and everything in the background and foreground is slightly blurry) are unique. He is able to capture specific moments in preparing a recipe that make you wish you were there cooking with him. You can check some of his beautiful food photography here. Choose Portfolio and select Food.

I actually spent a chunk of change buying a lens that is f1.8-capable in order to try to emulate his style. My last few posts and this posting have my feeble photographic attempts to incorporate his style.

Then I started to discover his recipes. His heritage informs his cooking. His parents are from two very different parts of India and he takes a unique approach to mixing western and eastern cooking. I've made a couple of the recipes featured in the SF Chronicle (and some are on deck to try).

So each October, we get a Sugar Pie pumpkin (or two) in our CSA box. We typically put it on the porch or window sill to acknowledge Fall and Halloween. After a few weeks it goes bad and we compost it. One year, I did try to cook one but the results turned me off for a few years. Then I recently saw Nik's Pumpkin Flan in a recent SF Chronicle feature. So I decided to give it a try.

The results were quite tasty. There are a few steps that I need to master and improve upon (like the caramelized sugar topping) but we enjoyed the flan and will make it again. This, however, is not your typical custardy flan. Nik introduces some new ingredients that harken to his upbringing. In addition to pumpkin, he adds ground ginger and turmeric. The latter provides a glow of yellow that mixes with the orange pumpkin to create a very Fall-looking dessert.

The main thing about this recipe is that you need to plan out--ahead of time--how you can get a cake pan into a water bath. I did not catch this until I was fully committed and in progress with the recipe. So you need a cake pan and then a larger receptacle, like a full sized skillet, into which you can have the cake pan sitting in a water bath. In addition you need something to raise the cake pan off of the base so that the hot water is directly underneath. The original recipe calls for a wire rack underneath the cake pan, but I did not have a small enough wire rack to fit in my 12" skillet. So I improvised and made it work.

The original recipe is here but you might not be able to access it as it's part of the subscriber-based part of the San Francisco Chronicle.

Pumpkin Flan

Ingredients:

• Pumpkin - 1 medium sugar pie pumpkin
• Sugar - 1/4 cup
• Water - 2 tablespoons
• Eggs - 5 large
• Ginger - 1 teaspoon ground
• Turmeric - 1 teaspoon ground
• Milk - 1 cup whole milk
• Condensed milk - 1 14 oz. can
• Evaporated milk - 1 12 oz. can

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees
• Slice the pumpkin in half and remove all of the seeds. Place face down on a foil-lined baking sheet and roast until soft, around 45-60 minutes. When done, remove from the oven and let cool.
  
• Once cool, scoop out the flesh and put it into a food processor and run until smooth. Measure 1 cup of processed pumpkin.
• Reduce oven to 350 degrees.
• Have ready a 9 inch cake pan.
• Place the sugar and water in a small saucepan. Stir and heat the mixture over medium high heat. Stir regularly and in 6-9 minutes the sugar will start to darken. Watch carefully as it can easily burn. Once the sugar reaches a dark amber color pour it into the bottom of the cake pan swirling the pan to distribute it across as much of the bottom of the pan as possible. I was too conservative and did not get the desired brown on my first try as you can see in the photo.
  
• Put the cake pan in the refrigerator until the caramel hardens.
• In a large bowl, add the pumpkin puree, ginger, turmeric, and eggs. Whisk until eggs are scrambled. 
• Add the three different milks and whisk until smooth.
• Prepare the water bath. Place the cake pan in a pot and fill it with water so that the water reaches halfway up the side of the cake pan. 
• Bake for 2 hours at 350 degrees. Make sure the center of the flan is firm to the touch before removing. 
• Remove the cake pan from the water bath and let cool. 
• Cover in plastic and refrigerate overnight to set.
• Use a knife around the edges to release the flan from its pan. Flip carefully and gently tap to release. 
• Serve chilled
  
  
  
  
  
  
  

Raspberry Sauce

So simple.

I made a cheesecake for a recent dinner party (recipe coming soon) but I needed a little "something" to take it to the next level.

I got to thinking about how in restaurants they decorate the plate with smears and dribbles of sauces. I figured I needed some of that. For whatever reason, raspberry puree popped into my brain and I got online and did some research and I found this simple sauce.

This is it. This sauce will take your simple desserts up a notch.

Drizzle it on a plate. Squeeze some over the top of your dessert. It's super easy to make and keeps in the fridge a long time. I just bought a squeeze bottle on Amazon for $3 in order to play around with various presentation techniques.

The photo features some leftover sauce days after the dinner party drizzled over ice cream along with some wild strawberries from the back yard.

Raspberry Sauce

• 1 pint raspberries
• 2 tbsp. orange juice
• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2 tbsp. cornstarch
• 1 cup cold water

Combine the raspberries and orange juice in a medium skillet. Add sugar and stir until the sugar is spread around and becoming transparent. Whisk together cornstarch and water in a separate bowl and add it to the skillet. Bring to a boil. Simmer for 5 minutes stirring constantly. Turn off heat and let cool for a bit. Pour sauce into small food processor and puree the sauce. Pour it into a sealed container and set it in the fridge. Let it cool completely before using.

Apple Pie Filling

My posts a few years ago had me troubled about my new apple tree. In its first few years it did not produce a whole lot of fruit. Maybe I was not giving it proper care or maybe it just needed a few years to mature. I'm not sure but this year I got a viable crop of apples. The coloring on the peel was still not what I expected but below the peel all was tasty.

A few weekends ago I harvested a shopping bag full of apples. In an earlier post, I had thought that I'd turn all my apples into canned applesauce, but some internet research got me interested in canned apple pie filling. I used most of my apple crop to make the 3 + quarts of apple pie filling. The rest will become applesauce. I was able to take some of the overflow apple pie filling to work with some yogurt the next day and it was quite tasty.

I won't go into the recipe here. Instead, I will just link you to the informative recipe I more or less followed.

Apple Sharlotka

This time of year, it's easy to get overwhelmed with citrus and fruit. In the box, we've had lots of pears and Satsumas recently. Oranges and lemons are coming in and there are lots of apple varieties still in season.

Our overrunning fruit bowl got a little lighter after a friend sent me this recipe for something called Apple Sharlotka. I had to agree with her that it looked simple, delicious, and not unhealthy. Plus, I had plenty of apples on hand.

A sharlotka is a traditional Russian cake; not unlike the French clafouti. Both are simple, traditional cakes requiring few ingredients and made often to go along with tea or coffee.

The recipe is ripe for experimentation. Try substituting out some of the white flour for a healthier flour. Try some brown sugar instead of white. More nutmeg or cinnamon.

The results were quite tasty. Lots of fruit and not overly sweet.

Apple Sharlotka

Ingredients:

• Butter or non-stick spray
• 6 large tart apples, such a Granny Smith
• 3 large eggs
• 1 cup sugar
• 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon nutmeg
• Ground cinnamon, to finish
• Powdered sugar, to finish

Directions:

1. Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Get a piece of parchment paper large enough to cover the bottom of a 9 inch springform pan. Lock the paper and the bottom back into the pan.
3. Butter or non-stick spray the bottom and sides.
4. Peel and core the apples. I used an apple slicer/corer which made 8 slices. I sliced those once again to make 16 slices and then chopped in the opposite direction making 4 or 5 chunks per slice. Add apple chunks to the springform pan.
5. In a large bowl add eggs and sugar. Using an electric hand mixer beat the eggs and sugar until they are well blended. 
6. Add in the vanilla and nutmeg.
7. With the mixer still going, add in the flour one tablespoon at a time mixing well before adding the next. Each spoonful will add more thickness. When all of the flour is in you may be asking yourself, "Is this cake mixture or drywall compound?" Meanwhile, slowly spin the bowl while mixing searching for hidden bits of flour on the bottom.
8. Pour the mixture over the apples and use a spoon to thoroughly mix the apples and the batter. Take the time to evenly distribute the batter throughout.
9. Bake for 55-60 minutes, or until a toothpick comes out clean.
10. Remove from the oven and let it cool in the springform pan for at least 10 minutes. 
11. After cooling, run a kitchen knife between the cake and pan. Unlock the pan and remove the side. Flip cake onto a dinner plate and remove the bottom and the parchment paper.
12. Dust with cinnamon and powdered sugar.

Apple Cranberry Crisp

We had a backlog of apples from the box over the last few weeks that we had yet to use. Then a neighbor dropped by with some more homegrown apples. Usually I would make an apple pie in situations like this but I was inspired by this recipe from a fellow CSAer to go for the crisp. I like the idea of incorporating oats instead of just a white flour pie crust. The crisp is a nice, tasty alternative to pie.

As a starting point, I just used the recipe off of the oats box (with a few minor modifications). It says you can also use pears and peaches instead.

Apple Cranberry Crisp

Filling:

• 6 cups of diced apples, peel on (about 6-8 apples)
  
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries
• 1/3 cup maple syrup (I didn't have any so I used some honey and brown sugar instead)
• 1 tbsp. lemon juice
• 1 tsp. vanilla extract
• 1/2 tsp. ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

Topping:

• 1 cup Quick or Old Fashioned uncooked oats (I used Country Choice available to Trader Joe's)
• 3/4 cup brown sugar
• 1/3 cup flour
• 1 tsp. cinnamon
• 1 tsp. salt
• 1/2 stick of melted butter

1. Preheat oven to 375. With a small dab of butter grease the bottom of a glass or ceramic 9 inch pie pan.
2. In a large bowl collect the apple pieces, lemon juice, cranberries, syrup, vanilla extract, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Stir until well mixed. Spread evenly into the pie pan.
3. Prepare the topping by mixing together the oats, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon, and salt. Add the melted butter and stir until evenly moistened. Spread evenly over the fruit.
   
4. Bake 35-40 minutes or until fruit is tender.
5. Remove from the oven and let stand for 20 minutes

Roasted Pear with Fig Jam and Goat Cheese with Port

The latest Vegetarian Times magazine had a series of recipes all based around pears. The article opens up with an excellent quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson:

There are only 10 minutes in the life of a pear when it is perfect to eat.

So true. When we get pears, it's too easy to think that they will last the way an apple or an orange will. But then you bite into a "mealy mouthful of overripe pear" and you realize you should have used that pear earlier.

Lately, I've been getting better with the pair of pears that have been in our box for the last few weeks. I dice one up in the morning, pour some vanilla yogurt on top, and take it as a part of my lunch. The yogurt and pear combo is a good one in my book.


The VT spread had an intriguing recipe for Roasted Pear Salad with Chevre and Fig Vinaigrette. I made it fairly close to the original using Maiche instead of watercress or arugula. While quite good, we thought the roasted pear was good enough on its own that it didn't need to be a salad. It made a perfectly good, palette-cleansing last course. A variation of the fruit/cheese course. The fig and the pear complement each other quite well. And the cheese gives it a bit of creaminess. More importantly, it makes the perfect course with which to enjoy a glass of quality port. This will show you that a pear should never go to waste.














Roasted Pear with Fig Jam and Goat Cheese (with Port)

• 1-2 pears, halved and cored
• fig jam (I found fig jam at Whole Foods in the jelly/jam part of the store. But over in the cheese section they were selling a jar of "Organic Adriatic Fig Spread" which I opted to get. Both were equally expensive.
• goat cheese, sliced
• olive oil

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 375 degrees
• Place pear halves cut side up
• Spoon 1 teaspoon jam in the center of each pear half
• Top with goat cheese
• Lightly drizzle with oil
• Bake pears for 30 minutes, or until cheese begins to brown

Serve warm with a glass of port and enjoy!

There's also room to add your own variations. Maybe some roasted nuts with a touch of honey sprinkled over the top might add another dimension. A stronger cheese like blue cheese would also be interesting. Just put "roasted pears" into Google and see the possibilities.

Peach Clafoutis

Everyone's clafoutis is a little different.

A clafoutis is traditional french dessert and a great way to use up that summer fruit. It is quick and easy to make. The ingredients are simple and not overly unhealthy for you. It lies somewhere between a pancake and a custard. It's not sweet and sugary like a pie. Instead, it has an old world simplicity that takes you back to a time before mega-sweet desserts were the norm. Traditionally, it was made with cherries but you can also make it with berries, plums, sliced peaches, nectarines or apricots when in season.

I've made two in the last two weeks in an effort to use up our backyard peaches. The first one was just straight peaches. Then, the following week, I made it again but also added blueberries. I knew that the addition of blueberries would make look more attractive (and add another dimension in taste).

There are plenty of recipes online (I've included some below). You'll find variations in the amount of some of the key ingredients but it's easy enough to make you can fine tune it to your palate.

Here's where I started but it may evolve.

Ingredients:

• 1/4 cup sugar
• 2/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 3 eggs
• 1 cup milk
• 1 1/2 teaspoons vanilla extract
• 4-6 peaches
• 2 tablespoons powdered sugar

Directions:

• Preheat oven to 375°F.
• With a kitchen blender or a hand mixer, whisk together sugar, flour and salt in a medium bowl. Whisk in eggs one at a time. Whisk in milk and vanilla, just until incorporated.
• Slice the peaches into 8ths. Peel them as you cut them (You can also drop whole peaches in boiling water for one minute and then transfer to an ice bath. The skins come right off then). But the peaches in my backyard were easy enough to peel as I sliced them.
• Butter a 9 inch pie dish and pour just enough batter so as to cover the bottom of the dish.
• Artfully arrange the peach slices evenly on the bottom of the dish. Pour the remaining batter over peaches.
• Bake at 375 for 10 minutes. Then lower the heat to 350 and cook until it puffed and brown. A fork should come out clean in the center, 45 to 60 minutes,
• Sift powdered sugar over top and cut into wedges.

The first time we just enjoyed it as is. The second time we we enjoyed it with a little high quality vanilla ice cream on the side.

Here are some sites where you can find more variations:

This site uses a little heavy cream in the batter.

This site adds the heavy cream and then amaretto which sounds yummy.

This site says it's Julia Childs recipe who adds a little cardamon.

Cooking with Amy also says it's Julia's but it's different from the last one.

This one uses brown sugar instead.

This one adds a little meyer zest which sounds interesting.

Have fun!

Drunken Peaches

My peach tree had a great crop this year. But peaches don't have a great shelf life so I needed to find some ways to use them up. However, I found that most recipes for peaches either call for a stick of butter or 3 cups of sugar--something I would like to avoid. I found peach pie, peach crisp but what I wanted was a simple way to prepare the peaches. Ultimately, I found a handful of recipes that weren't sugar or butter laden and I'm trying to make one each night until I run out of peaches.

I know I need to learn how to can peaches but that will come at a later time.

In my research, I found an intriguing recipe on the Food Network for Peaches and Sauternes. I went to the dessert wine section of my local supermarket but I couldn't find any Sauternes. I ended picking up a Riesling dessert wine instead. I assumed any dessert white wine will work but I would like to come back and see if the Sauternes makes a difference. For now I'll call it:

Drunken Peaches

Ingredients

• 6 to 8 peaches
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1 375 ml. bottle good dessert white wine
• 1 tablespoon orange-flavored liqueur (recommended: Grand Marnier)

Directions

• Bring a pot of water to a boil
  
• Meanwhile, pour the wine and liqueur in a large bowl, add the sugar, and stir to dissolve
• When the water is boiling, immerse the peaches in the water for 1 to 2 minutes.
  
• Remove them with a slotted spoon and place them in a bowl of cold water and ice cubes to stop the cooking.
  
• Peel the peaches and then slice them in wedges off the pit and into the bowl.
  
• Cover and refrigerate for at least 2 hours, or overnight. Serve cool but not cold.

Apple Oven Cake

I was paging through an old Sunset magazine (October 2009) when a recipe caught my eye. It sometimes seems that we can't always keep up with the apples from our box. I slice them into salads at every opportunity but I'm always looking for ways to use 1 or 2 of those Fuji apples.

This was a snap to make and I loved how the cast iron skillet was used for both stove top and oven. It could actually be made from scratch after dinner. It was definitely made in 30 minutes or less as advertised.

I made a few slight changes from the original recipe (seen next to the skillet in the photo).

Here's what I did:

Apple Oven Cake

Ingredients:

• 3 tbsp. butter
• 1/4 cup packed brown sugar
• 1/4 tsp. cinnamon
• 2 apples, such as Fuji, peeled and sliced (original recipe called for just one)
• 3 eggs
• 1/4 tsp. salt
• 1/2 cup each flour and milk (I used non-fat)
• lime juice (original recipe called for lemon juice but I'm swimming in limes from the backyard right now)
  
• powdered sugar
  

Preparation:

• Preheat oven to 425 degrees
• In a large bowl, combine eggs, salt, flour, and milk. Use a hand blender to mix until well blended.
• Peel and slice apples
  
• Melt butter in a 12" cast iron (or other ovenproof skillet) over high heat.
• Add brown sugar and cinnamon, swirling to combine.
  
• Stir in apples and cook until they begin to soften, about 3 minutes
• Pour in egg mixture and transfer to oven. Bake until puffed and brown, about 15 minutes.
• Sprinkle with juice and powdered sugar. Use a wire mesh colander for the powdered sugar. Press sugar through wire with your fingers.
  

Eggnog Cheesecake

This was the second dessert I made for a recent dinner party. This photo (not mine) caught my eye in a Sunset magazine one year ago. Despite the attractive photo, I never made the recipe because I was missing a key ingredient: a springform pan. I managed to pick one up eventually but I never got around to making this recipe. Recently, I rediscovered the saved magazine on a shelf and decided to make it.

The original Sunset recipe is now at My Recipes and can be found here.

Ingredients:

• 1 1/4 cups graham cracker crumbs
• 3 tablespoons butter, melted
• 3 pkgs. (8 oz. each) cream cheese, at room temperature
• 1 cup sugar, divided (3/4 for cake; 1/4 for whipped cream)
  
• 4 large eggs, at room temperature
• 2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
• 1/3 cup brandy
• 2 teaspoons freshly grated nutmeg, divided
• 1 cup whipping cream

Preparation

• Preheat oven to 300 degrees.
• Break up graham cracker and place them in food processor and process until the crackers are crumbs
• Pour crumbs into a bowl, add butter, and stir to mix
• Pour buttered crumbs into springform pan and press mixture evenly over bottom and up side of pan
• In a large bowl, with a mixer on medium speed, beat cream cheese and 3/4 cup sugar until smooth
• Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well after each addition and scraping down inside of bowl as needed
• Beat in flour, brandy, and 1 1/2 tsp. nutmeg just until incorporated
• Pour into crumb-lined pan and bake 40 to 50 minutes
• Put cheesecake on a rack and let cool completely. Cover and chill until cold, at least 3 hours
• Remove pan rim
• In a small bowl, whisk together cream and remaining 1/4 cup sugar until stiff peaks form (10 minutes)
• Dollop whipped cream onto cheesecake and sprinkle with remaining 1/2 tsp. nutmeg.

Wine Cake

I had to make the desserts for a dinner party over the weekend. Now we're not big dessert people. They say there are salt people and sugar people. We're definitely salt people. A container of ice cream can sit in the freezer for months. But a bag of chips won't last two days.

This recipe comes from my late mother-in-law and it's pretty simple and straight forward. It was always a favorite with all of the relatives. Fortunately, I was able to get the recipe. It's a great holiday recipe as it fills the house with the welcoming smell of nutmeg. It's not too sweet which is good for us salt people. The cake goes well with ice cream and/or fruit could be placed in the center.

Ingredients:

• 1 package of yellow cake mix (1 lb. 3 oz.)
• 1 package of vanilla custard (3.4 oz.)
• 4 eggs
• 3/4 cup olive oil
• 3/4 cup sherry (next time I might try 1 cup)
  
• 1 teaspoon ground nutmeg
• powdered sugar

Preparation steps:

• Preheat oven to 350 degrees
• Combine all ingredients, except powdered sugar, in a large bowl
• Mix with electric mixer at medium speed for 5 minutes
• Pour into greased bundt pan
• Bake for 45 minutes
• Let cool in pan before turning out
• Sprinkle top with powdered sugar

Let the cake cool thoroughly before turning it out of the pan. Use a screen strainer/colander for the powdered sugar garnish. Spoon the sugar into the bottom of the colander and use your fingers to force the sugar through the screen.