Farm Direct Coop Recipesor. . . what you can do with your share!

For those of you with a fruit share that got 2 pints of cherries this week…This recipe is from Saveur (this month) and you can also find it online here.

• 2 lbs pitted fresh sour cherries
• 1/4 cup flour
• 16 Tbs unsalted butter (2 sticks), softened, plus more for pan
• 1 1/2 cups sugar
• 3 Tbl kirsch or brandy
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 egg
• 2 1/4 cups whole wheat flour
• 1 Tbl baking powder
• 3/4 tsp kosher salt
• 1 cup milk

1. Heat oven to 400. 
2. Toss cherries with 1/4 cup flour in a bowl and set aside.
3. Grease a 13″ x 18″ x 1″ baking sheet with butter and dust with flour; set aside.
4. In a large bowl, beat together butter, sugar, kirsch, and vanilla with a hand mixer on medium speed until pale and fluffy.
5. Add egg; beat until incorporated.
6. In a medium bowl, whisk together whole wheat flour, baking powder, and salt.
7. With the mixer running on low speed, alternately add flour mixture and milk in 3 batches to make a batter.  Spoon batter onto reserved baking sheet and smooth evenly.
8. Sprinkle cherries over the top and bake until cake is golden brown, 45-50 minutes.  Let cool 30 minutes, then cut into 12 squares.

Serves 12.

Submitted by Lynne Paschetag
From The King Arthur Flour Baker’s Companion, Woodstock, VT: Countryman Press, 2003

• 1 cup (5 ¼ oz)whole wheat flour
• 1 1/3 (5 ½ oz)cups all purpose flour
• 1 cup (7 oz) sugar
• 1 cup (8 oz) firmly packed brown sugar
• 2 tsp baking soda
• ¾ tsp salt
• 1 tsp cinnamon
• ½ tsp allspice
• ½ tsp nutmeg
• 8 Tbsp unsalted butter, softened
• 3 Tbsp minced crystallized ginger (optional)
• 4 cups (28 oz) cored, chopped, unpeeled apples
• ½ cup (2 oz) diced pecans or walnuts
• ½ cup (3 oz) raisins or currants
• 2 large eggs

1. Preheat oven to 325 degrees.
2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flours, sugars, baking soda, salt and spices. Cut the softened butter into chunks and add it along with the ginger, apples, nuts, raising, and eggs. With an electric mixer, beat the mixture at medium speed until well blended.
3. Turn the batter into a greased and floured 9 x 13 inch pan and smooth the top. Bake the cake for 45 minutes, or until it springs back when lightly touched in the center. Remove the cake from the oven and let it cool completely in the pan on a wire rack. Serve with whipped cream sweetened with confectioner’s sugar. If desired, add a bit of Calvados (apple brandy) while whipping the cream for added apple flavor.

Note: I use King Arthur’s white whole wheat flour. You still get the nutritional benefits of the whole grain but the flavor is lighter and not as tannic as traditional whole wheat flour.

If you’ve never had a homemade angel food cake, you’re in for a treat. It’s one of those things that tastes soooo much better when you make it fresh; I think it is totally worth the effort (and the investment in an angel-food cake pan). This recipe is from Gale Gand.

Cranberry Angel Food Cake

For the cake:

• 1 -1/2 cups  egg whites — (from about 1 dozen eggs) at room temperature
•  1- 1/4 teaspoons  cream of tartar
• 1/2 teaspoon  salt
•  1 -1/2  cups  sugar
•  1-1/8   cup  sifted cake flour  (or substitute regular flour)
•  1  teaspoon  vanilla extract 
• 1 tangerine — or orange, zested 
• 1 cup  fresh cranberries –or thawed frozen

For the glaze: 

• 2  tablespoons  tangerine juice — or orange 
• 2  tablespoons  cranberry juice 
• 1  tablespoon  egg whites 
• 1-1/2  cups  confectioner’s sugar

1.  Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F. In a mixer fitted with a whisk attachment (or using an electric  hand mixer), whip the egg whites until foamy. Add the cream of tartar and salt and continue whipping until soft peaks form. With the mixer running, gradually add 1 cup of the sugar and continue whipping until stiff and the sugar has dissolved, about 30 seconds.

2.  Sift the remaining 1/2-cup sugar with the pre-sifted cake flour 3 times, to aerate the mixture. Sprinkle this over the egg whites, then fold it in. Fold in the vanilla, zest, and cranberries.

3.  Spoon the batter into an ungreased tube pan. Bake until light golden brown, 30 to 35 minutes. Cool by hanging the cake (in the pan) upside down around the neck of a glass bottle (wine bottle, soda etc.) until it cools to room temperature. Run a long, sharp knife blade around the cake to loosen, then knock the cake out onto a plate. The outside of the cake will remain in the pan.  

Glaze: Stir the ingredients together until smooth. Pour glaze over the top of the cake and spread with a spatula, letting it trickle down the sides. Let set for at least 30 minutes before serving, or until the icing is hard. Cut with a serrated knife, using a sawing motion.

When I went to store this week’s bounty of fruit, I discovered that I’d failed to use up all of last week’s peaches. Since my son is a slushie fan, I searched the web for some recipes. They all seem to follow the same principle: puree lightly sweetened fruit, and freeze.

You don’t have to limit yourself to peaches and cantaloupe – most any fruit will do, singly or in combination.  (Remember to remove the seeds from watermelon!). You can play around with flavor additions, too – add a bit of freshly chopped mint or basil, or other herbs. Very ripe (or even overripe) fruit gives the best flavor. Frozen slush will keep for several weeks - a great way to extend fruit’s ”shelf life.”

• 2 large peaches (or 3 medium ones), peeled and sliced
• 1 small cantaloupe,(cut into wedges and remove seeds and rind, then cut into chunks
• 1-2 tablespoons lemon juice
• 1-2 tablespoons honey, sugar, or maple syrup (note: do not use honey if making this for children younger than 1 year old)

1.  Place fruit, 1 tablespoon honey or sugar, and lemon juice in a food processor and puree until smooth. Taste and add additional sweetener, if desired (it should taste a little sweeter than you want the final product to be).

2.  Pour into a 9″x9″ glass dish and place in the freezer. Let freeze until mostly solid, about 2 hours. Use a fork to break up the slushie, scraping around the edges of the dish and mix well to break up big lumps.

3.  Cover the dish with plastic wrap and return to freezer. Let freeze until solid or overnight. Transfer to a covered plastic container and store in the freezer. Scrape again with a fork before serving.

Adapted from Jamie Oliver’s Cookbook, “Jamie at Home”

This is delicious over Greek yogurt or ice cream.

• About 1 pound rhubarb, trimmed and chopped
• About a ½ cup sugar
• Juice of ½ an orange

Place the rhubarb, sugar and orange juice in a small pan and put the lid on. Simmer for a couple of minutes, then remove the lid and simmer for a few minutes more until slightly thickened. Use as a sauce or jam.

(modified by Nicole Grazado, Marblehead member, from Everyday Food)

Streusel

• 6 TBS butter melted
• 1 Cup flour
• 1/2 cup brown sugar

Cake

• 1/2 lb rhubarb
• 1TBS brown sugar
• 1 cup flour
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1tsp salt
• 1 stick butter softened
• 1 cup confectioners’ sugar
• 2 eggs
• 1 tsp almond extract

1. To make streusel add melted butter to brown sugar and stir in flour. Put in fridge until ready to use. When you are ready to use it, break it up gently with a fork to make crumbly.
2. Chop Rhubarb into 1/2 inch piece. Mix with 1 TBS of brown sugar.
3. To make cake, cream butter and sugar. Add eggs one at a time. Add flour, baking powder and salt. Add extract.
4. Grease an 8 in square baking pan. Spread batter into pan, top with Rhubarb mix and then top with streusel. Bake at 350 degrees for 30 -40 minutes until top is golden brown.