Apricot Tart

We couldn't resist the fresh apricots when they began to appear from the local orchard. Of course we ate 3 of them on the way home in the car, but then there were the rest to think about. The next morning, it was all I could think about... and I wondered how to make one of those beautiful pastries that we had encountered in Europe decades ago. Not having made them when I was using butter and eggs and sugar and wheat flour, I didn't have to undo any ideas, just come up with a way to put a dough under them and a glaze over them. Here's what I came up with.

Apricot Tart - (makes 6" x10" pastry)
oven at 350F


2 fresh ripe apricots
2 Tbsp flax seed, ground (I'm doing this all the time for the sake of Omega 3's)
2 Tbsp almond meal
1/3 c potato starch (just figuring out what this adds to texture)
3/4 c brown rice flour
2 TBSP oat bran (avoid if must be purely gluten free)
2 TBSP chick pea flour
1/4 tsp baking powder
1-2 TBSP agave (how sweet do you need the pastry to be?)
1 tsp cinnamon
1/4 c almonds (sort of slivered)

For glaze: 1-2 tsp maple syrup, 1 tsp almond milk + cinnamon

1. Peel and slice, or slice and peel apricots.
2. Mix together all the dry ingredients, and wet ingredients separately.
2. Add wet to dry and gently knead into a soft ball of dough an roughly shape this into a thick rectangle.

3. Spread out a the silicone baking sheet on a baking pan and put the dough on it, gently pressing it outward from the middle until you achieve a little bigger than 6"x10" or thereabouts. Make 2 sets of indentations up the length of the dough, approximately an apricot slice wide (see picture). Lay in the apricot slices in 3 rows. Sprinkle this with almond slivers.
4. Mix up the glaze and drizzle it all over the apricots. My husband thought it could have used more sweetness in the glaze or just more glaze... He likes things sweeter than I do, but I agreed with him that a little more would have been nice. You could use honey instead of maple syrup, or sugar, if you are a sugar-eating person.
5. Bake for about 20 minutes - check for doneness with a toothpick. Let cool just a bit before you try to handle it... then peel it off the silicone and put it on a nice plate for effect!

Fresh Blueberry Pie, Yup No Oil, No Gluten

I've been picking blueberries from our little patch, one berry at a time for the past couple weeks. Just in the last three days the production has risen to a pint a day. This doesn't last long among our 4 tall and 2 low bushes, but it is the one moment all summer when I can even think about using berries by cupfuls. A rare occasional dinner with both our kids home prompted me to look up fresh blueberry pie ideas, the crust being the challenge. How to make a pie crust with no oil? Here's one way!

THE CRUST:

 

2 Tablespoons ground flax seeds
1/4 cup almond meal
1/2 cup potato starch
1/2 cup brown rice flour
2 pinches salt
1/4 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp "Truvia" - 9a stevia based sweetener with sugar) or other sweetener
1/4 cup +1 Tablespoon Plain Almond milk

Mix the dry ingredients well. Pour the milk into the middle and stir until it globs together, then take it in your hands and model it like playdough, until it forms a coherent ball of dough.

Put parchment paper into a 9" glass pie plate (use a nonstick if you have one, I don't). Press the dough ball into the center of the pan, working slowly pressing from the center to each edge, then pinching up the sides to form a pie plate shape. Cut off the extra floppy edges of the parchment paper, and bake at 350-375F for 20-25 minutes. The crust will be flecked and a bit crumbly but holds together fine. Let it cool, and then lifting it carefully by the parchment paper, slip it off the parchment and into a 2nd clean glass pie plate (or the same one if you can manage that).

THE FILLING:

2 pints of blueberries (or 5 cups)
2.5  Tablespoons cornstarch
3/4 cup sugar equivalent (I used 1/4 cup Truvia +2 Tblsps)
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
2/3 cup water
2tsp-+ 1 tsp lemon zest OR 2 Tblsp lemon juice (depending upon how you like it)
1 tsp vanilla extract
(non-vegans can add a dab of butter)


In a medium saucepan mix dry ingredients: cornstarch, sugar, salt, cinnamon. Add the water and about 1-1.5 cups of blueberries, smashing some of the berries with a potato masher. Heat on medium high heat, stirring, until it comes to a boil. Stir constantly for about a minute until it gets very thick. It will keep changing color which is lovely to watch.

Remove from heat, add lemon juice, lemon zest (if you want) and vanilla. Let cool. You can cool it faster by setting the pot in a bowl or pan of cold water.
Once cool. Add another 1.5 cups of berries (or more) and stir them into the gloopy mix.

Spoon this gloopy filling into the baked crust. Cover the top with a layer of fresh blueberries and let this chill. Decorate this pie with anything you like -- a sprinkle of confectioner's sugar goes a long way. Serve with a dab of vanilla coconut yogurt or anything that tickles your blueberry pie fancy!

Strawberry Amaranth Corn Cake

 We ran into a special on strawberries, two quarts for $5, and with this began my thinking about how to bake something that wouldn't turn the berries inside into squish yet had that strawberry flavor. I'd been wanting something that might double as a breakfast food and a possible dessert, and then I saw the jar of amaranth on my kitchen shelf. The innovation in this came from pureeing a banana and some of the strawberries and adding this to the soy milk and maple syrup. It was like making a little cake with a fruit smoothie! It had to have enough nutrition to make a good breakfast, and enough sweetness and texture to make a nice dessert, perhaps under some coconut yogurt.

Strawberry Amaranth Corn Cake (6 servings)

1/2 cup corn meal
1/2 cup brown rice flour
1/3 cup oats
2 Tblsp amaranth
1 Tblsp flax seed

1 cup soy milk (unsweetened)
2 Tblsp maple syrup
1 medium banana
8 strawberries
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cardamom
1/2 tsp cinnamon

1. Mix all the dry ingredients.
2. Mix the soy milk and syrup, cut the banana and two or three strawberries into small bits and puree them with the soy milk.
3. Mix the wet into the dry, spread on a silicone baking sheet in about a 9" circle an inch thick.
4. Slice the remaining strawberries and cover the surface.
5. Bake for 30-40 minutes at 375F. Cool just a little before slicing.

Amaranth adds a little crunch to the moist texture. Excellent with a dollop of any kind of yogurt as a dessert. Terrific with a dab of honey for breakfast. Nice as a mid-afternoon snack with a cup of tea too.

Strawberry Amaranth Corn Cake Nutrition Facts Serving Size: 1 sixth slice (127g) Amount Per Serving % Daily Value* Calories 231 12% Total Fat 6g 9% Saturated Fat 1g 3% Trans Fat Cholesterol 0% Sodium 216mg 9% Total Carbohydrate 41g 14% Dietary Fiber 5g 19% Sugars 9g 0% Protein 7g 13% Vitamin A 2% • Vitamin C 17% Calcium 9% • Iron 12% * Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calories needs.courtesy of cronometer.com using my data.

Pear Walnut Kamut Need-A-Sweet-Balls

So hard to go without that sweet treat. Subtracting brown sugar, butter, oils, wheat flours, even molasses, I have been hard pressed to do a dessert without resorting to soy yogurt and fruit. But what if you really want something that is not a muffin, not a yogurt, has a chew to it and that cookie-on-the-side feeling?  There was a nearly-too-ripe-to-eat Bosc pear clamoring for my attention, and this is what happened to it! It is heading down the road towards a granola bar, but if I had not used the silicone muffin cups, and had put small spoonfuls on parchment paper (bake 15 minutes), these would really be bite-sized treats. You can use apple, or probably dried apricots or any other fruit/nut combination and if you are going gluten free, you can either use gluten-free oats, or substitute a bit more almond meal and rice puffs. I cannot claim this is the be-all and end-all of Need-A-Sweet-Balls, so experiment and share your discoveries and success!

Pear Walnut Kamut Puff Need-A-Sweet-Balls (makes 6 silicone muffin cups/half full)

1/2  ripe Bosc pear, peeled and chopped
1/2 cup chopped walnuts
1/4 cup whole rolled oats
1/2 cup Kamut puffs (you could use rice puffs or any other "grain filler")
1 TBLSP almond meal
3 TBLSP  raisins
1 TBLSP maple syrup
1 tsp cinnamon
dash salt
sprinkle of flax seeds (on top)

1. Peel and chop pear, putting it into a mixing bowl, with chopped walnuts and oats.
2. Add everything else except the flax seeds, spooning this not-quite-sticking-together mixture into silicone muffin cups, half full.
3. Press gently with fingers into a mounded shape, sprinkle sparingly with flax seeds, and bake 20-25 minutes at 350F. Let them cool before trying to pull off the cups.  You can DEFINITELY use a tablespoon onto parchment paper in a baking pan and make bite-sized crisp sweet snack treats!

Pear Walnut Oat Need-A-Sweet-Ball Nutrition Facts Serving Size: 1 Serving (44g) Amount Per Serving % Daily Value* Calories 139 7% Total Fat 8g 12% Saturated Fat 1g 4% Trans Fat Cholesterol 0% Sodium 28mg 1% Total Carbohydrate 16g 5% Dietary Fiber 3g 10% Sugars 7g 0% Protein 3g 7% Vitamin A 0% • Vitamin C 1% Calcium 3% • Iron 5% * Percent Daily Values are based on a 2,000 calorie diet. Your daily values may be higher or lower depending on your calories needs. courtesy of cronometer.com using my data.