SWEET ENDINGS FOR 2023

 

Sweet endings for 2023

           We instinctively pause at the end of each year to remember and evaluate the past and consider our hopes for the coming year. In the past twelve months we have cautiously emerged from the burrow-like experience of the Covid years only to watch with apprehension the continuing violence and wars across our communal home we call the Earth. And yet there have been moments of joy in sharing our lives with loved ones near and far.  We have also found unexpected glimpses of beauty in the unfolding of the first crocus and the evening sun gilding the fur of a neighborhood fox as she returns to her den.

          In this spirit here are a few sweet endings for our New Years celebrations from an elegant Black Forrest pound cake to an apricot-pecan upside down cake, and for a simple and delicious desert fix – cranberry banana split.

                                           Black Forrest pound cake

          Preheat oven to 325 degrees and prepare a greased and floured 10-inch cake pan with a removable bottom and 3-inch-high sides. Finely chop 3 (1 oz.) bittersweet chocolate baking squares. Whisk together 1 ½ cups cake flour, ½ cup unsweetened cocoa, ¼ tsp. baking soda and ½ tsp. salt.

          In a heavy-duty electric mixer beat 2/3 cup softened butter until creamy. Gradually add 1 1/3 cups sugar and 2/3 cups firmly packed dark brown sugar, beating for about 5 minutes, until light and fluffy. Add 4 large eggs one at a time, beating until blended after each addition, and 1 tsp. vanilla and 1 tsp. lemon flavoring.

          Add flour to the batter mix alternately with ¾ cups sour cream, starting and ending with flour mix. Beat at low speed to mix and then stir in chopped chocolate. Pour batter into the prepared pan and bake for 1 hour and 10-20 minutes until a thin wooden skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. Remove from oven, cool in pan for 15 minutes, remove from the pan and completely cool for 1 hour.

          Prepare cherry sauce in a medium saucepan by stirring together 8 oz. dried cherries with 12 oz. frozen raspberries, 1/3 cup sugar, 1/3 cold water and 2 tsp. cornstarch. Cook over medium-low heat, stirring 12-15 minutes until thickened. Cool slightly and stir in 2 tblsp. Kirsch or brandy, ½ tsp. orange flavoring and cool for 1 hour.

          Assemble the cake by spreading cherry sauce over the cake. Beat 1 ¼ cups whipping cream with 1 tblsp sugar and ¼ tsp. vanilla until soft peaks form. Spread over the cherry filling and sprinkle with shaved bittersweet chocolate. Serve with or without a glass of champagne.

                             Apricot-pecan upside down cake

          Allow canned apricot halves to drain from the liquid, reserving ¼ cup for the cake. Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Set a metal cake pan or 8x8x2 inch baking dish on the stove and melt 1/3 cup butter, ½ cup brown sugar packed and 3 tblsp. white corn syrup while stirring until the mix bubbles. Remove from the stove and arrange apricots in the syrup cut side up and fit pecan halves between the apricots.

          In a bowl whisk together 1 cup all-purpose flour, 1 ¼ tsp. baking powder and ¼ tsp. salt. Cream ¼ cup butter with ½ cup sugar, ¼ tsp. almond extract and ½ tsp. lemon extract. Beat in 2 eggs and with a wooden spoon stir in the flour mix and reserved apricot liquid alternating, starting and ending with flour. Spread the batter gently out over the apricots and bake for 35 minutes until the cake tests done. Cool on the rack for 10 minutes and invert over a serving plate allowing the juice to drip over the cake. Serve at room temperature.

                                      Cranberry banana split

          This is a showy and quick dessert, requiring no baking and has the additional benefit of being gluten free. You will need ½ banana per person, ice cream and some ready to serve whipped topping and cranberry sauce.

For the cranberry sauce cook 1 ½ cups cranberries with ¼ cup water, ½ cup sugar and 5 cloves for 10-15 minutes and cool. To assemble, place half a banana cut lengthwise in individual serving bowls, top with scoops of ice cream, spoon cranberry sauce over and top with a whipped topping for a colorful and easy sweet finale.

So let us join the poet Robert Burns and sing: “…For auld lang syne, We’ll tak a cup o’kindness yet, for auld lang syne”.

                 (I. Winicov Harrington lives in coastal Maine and is the author of “How to Eat Healthy and Well for Less than $5.00 a Day:”and “Uncharted Journey from Riga”; website: www.winicov-harrington.com)

 

 

 

VERSATILE PIES

Versatile pies

           As someone once unerringly observed: “pies are comfort in a crust”. Their creamy, fruity or savory flavors tempt our taste buds as desert after a meal and the savory pie is meant to constitute the main course itself.

          We in the USA tend to associate pies more with desert, but their origins in the British Isles many centuries ago were in meat pies, prepared to be served at meals or as hand pies to be taken short journeys or hawked by aggressive vendors at street corners. Pies were apparently invented/created in many places, often using local prevalent types of pastry. Thus, we have Quiche from France, Spanish empanadas with a dough crust, Greek Spanakopita with phyllo dough, turnovers with puff pastry and Shepherd’s pie with a top layer of mashed potatoes, instead of pastry. Shepherd’s pie is claimed by both Scots and the Irish, though some of the earliest records of it go back to Ireland in the seventeen hundreds, when housewives economized on everything, and potatoes were reasonably available.

          Pies and tarts are often confused, since they are both round and use a similar crust, but by definition a tart is open and has only a bottom crust. Which of course is confusing when you think of an open-faced pie! 

                                       Goat cheese-leek and tomato tart/pie

          Trim, split and clean 2 leeks and cut the white and light green parts in ½ inch slices. Prepare and set aside 8 oz crumbled goat cheese, ½ cup freshly grated Parmesan cheese, ½ cup chopped parsley and 1/3 cup pitted and sliced Kalamata olives.

          Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Line a 9-inch pie plate with pie pastry and bake for 5 minutes. Sauté leeks in 1 tblsp. butter on medium heat in a pan for 10 minutes, stir in 1 chopped garlic clove and after an additional minute, set aside. In a small bowl beat 2 eggs with ¼ tsp. pepper, 1 tsp. oregano and mix with the crumbled goat cheese and parsley.

          Layer leeks in the baked pastry shell, sprinkle with Parmesan cheese and spread over evenly the goat cheese mix. Dot with Kalamata olives and cover with thinly sliced Roma tomatoes. Sprinkle everything with slivered Parmesan cheese.

          Bake 15 minutes at 450 degrees, reduce temperature to 350 degrees and bake for an additional 30 minutes. Serve warm or at room temperature with scattered parsley leaves for garnish.

          Grocery deli-case pre-made pie crust is packaged separately for each crust, so after baking my one crust goat cheese pie it seemed perfect to use the other crust for a desert pie. At our house blueberry pie is the unsurpassed favorite and thus I make sure to freeze part of a flat of Maine wild blueberries each August. The following Blueberry crumble pie evolved to fit the occasion with a most intense and pleasing flavor.

                                          Blueberry walnut-crumble pie

          Crumble: mix ¾ cup flour with 1/3 cup sugar and ½ tsp. nutmeg. Cut in 1/3 cup firm butter with a pastry cutter or 2 knives until crumbly. Stir in 1/3 cup chopped walnuts.

          Preheat oven to 450 degrees. Line a 10-inch pie plate with crust, lightly crimp the edges and bake for 5 minutes.  Sprinkle 1 tblsp. fine breadcrumbs over the crust. In a small bowl mix ¾ cups sugar with 3 tblsp. cornstarch and spread 1/3 of the mixture over the breadcrumbs. Toss the rest of the sugar-cornstarch mix with 3 ½ cups frozen wild blueberries and turn into the pie crust. Sprinkle with 2-3 tblsp. lemon juice and the grated zest of a lemon.

          Cover all with the crumble mix, spreading to cover the entire surface. Bake 15 minutes at 450 degrees. Reduce temperature to 350 degrees and bake 30-35 minutes longer, until juice bubbles up along the crumble. It may be prudent to put a sheet of aluminum foil on the shelf below for the second part of baking, since without a top crust the filling may attempt to boil over.  Serve Warm or at room temperature.

          And then of course there is ‘pizza’, which in Italian means tomato pie.  In early 1900 it became street food in New York City and was often simply called pie, disregarding all distinctions between a pie and a tart.

    (I. Winicov Harrington lives in coastal Maine and is the author of “How to Eat Healthy and Well..."and " Uncharted Journey from Riga”; website: www.winicov-harrington.com)