Blueberry Crumb Bars

I balked when Tom handed me the kilo of blueberries. What would I ever do with so many? I asked aloud. “Freeze them” someone said, “you can never have too many blueberries” someone else chimed in.

The Best Berry Smoothie

So...clearly I’ve been slacking on the food blog lately. I’ll blame it on a combination of moving to Lisbon, Portugal (my favorite city in the world thus far), work and just general life. Regardless, I’ve made many recipes in the meantime and therefore have a backlog of tasty dishes (okay, okay, mostly desserts) to share with you all, my tiny readership.

Now, however, I’m posting a tasty, but simple, smoothie recipe which I suppose falls under the breakfast category. Whenever I’ve made this smoothie I’ve gotten great reviews and people are always shocked by the ingredients, especially the one which makes this so creamy. Avocado. Avocado in a smoothie, you ask? Why yes, avocado in a smoothie.

Meyer Lemon Pudding Cake

I can't believe it's been more than a month since I last posted a recipe!  Eek!  I guess I've just been super busy with finals for this quarter and searching for jobs.  The nice thing is, next quarter I should have more time for posts and I'm going to make a promise to myself to post at least once weekly.  Hopefully this post, which I finally had time for over Spring Break, (though I have the nagging feeling I should be applying for more jobs right now...) will be the start of my weekly posting promise.

I made this cake with the help of my brother-in-law Carlos, who suggested we use up the Meyer lemons he and my sister had just sitting in the fridge.  Knowing it was a tragedy to let them go to waste, we decided to put them to use to make this light yet rich cake which Carlos has made before.  You serve it in slices with heavy cream and top it with fresh berries.  The perfect and easy summery treat to go along with the recent warm weather!

Meyer Lemon Pudding Cake (lightly adapted from Epicurious)

Ingredients
1 1/2 cups buttermilk
1 cup sugar, divided
4 large egg yolks
1/3 cup fresh Meyer lemon juice
1/4 cup all purpose flour
1/4 cup (1/2 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 large egg whites

Whipping cream
Assorted fresh berries

Directions
1) Preheat oven to 350°F. Butter 8x8x2-inch glass baking dish.
2) Blend buttermilk, 1/2 cup sugar, egg yolks, lemon juice, flour, butter, and salt in blender until smooth.
3) Using electric mixer, beat egg whites in large bowl until soft peaks form. Gradually add remaining 1/2 cup sugar and beat until stiff but not dry. Gently fold buttermilk mixture into whites in 3 additions (batter will be runny). Pour batter into prepared dish.
4) Place dish in larger roasting pan. Then place dish and roasting pan in oven.  Pour enough hot water into roasting pan to come halfway up sides of dish.
5) Bake until entire top is evenly browned and cake moves very slightly in center but feels slightly springy to touch, about 45 minutes. Remove dish from roasting pan. Cool cake completely in baking dish on rack.
6) Refrigerate until cold, at least 3 hours and up to 6 hours.
7) Spoon pudding cake out into shallow bowls. Pour cream around cake. Top with berries.

Sheer Deliciousness

I knew that the spice mill I bought (aka a cheap coffee grinder) would come in handy again. This time it was not used for spices but to puree the beautiful raspberries which I used in this delicious cupcake recipe. The other day Micah said he had extra raspberries (Who ever has extra raspberries? this concept is totally foreign to me) and he wanted a recipe to use them up so he asked me to find one. This cupcake recipe was just the right thing. We had all of the ingredients minus a little powdered sugar and more berries. So Micah and I went down the road to this little store that sells all kinds of fruit. It's great, a classy version of a roadside stand they also sell cheese, bread, baked goods, and dried fruit and nuts. Amazing. And that's not the best part. They have samples. Of everything. You can try literally every fruit you're thinking about buying. Plus most of the vegetables. So I naturally tried every fruit in the place and the berries we ended up buying, several times. Then we brought home our wares and began making these delicious cupcakes. The one thing that bothered me is that the frosting didn't have quite the consistency it was supposed to. It was a little too runny. But no matter, these cupcakes still taste absolutely amazing. We baked them just right, a first, in this oven, and they're soft and beautiful on the inside. Sure, they're not that pretty and Micah wouldn't let me add more than a pound of powdered sugar to the frosting (which calls for 1-3lbs) citing the fact that we were going to get diabetes if we added more so I relented and we didn't. It also made the berry flavor a bit more intense so I guess that was good.

Fresh Berry Cupcakes (from The Cooking Photographer)

Use the best quality berries you can get. They are the stars in these moist cupcakes. By letting the berry puree macerate for a day, the sugars will release making these cupcakes much better. (I skipped this step but the cupcakes were still delicious)

Ingredients
2/3 cup whole fresh or frozen strawberry puree, or any berry of choice pureed with juices
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, very soft
1 cup granulated sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
2 large eggs
1 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon almond extract
1/4 cup half & half or whole milk
1/3 cup cornstarch
1 teaspoon baking powder
1 ¼ cups unbleached all-purpose flour

Instructions
1. Gather enough thawed or fresh berries to make the puree plus more for the frosting (below). Then completely process the berries in a food processor (or a bit at a time in a coffee grinder, sacrilege, I know) and store in a covered bowl in the refrigerator for a day to let the sugars release. If using berries with seeds like raspberries or blackberries, strain the puree through a fine mesh sieve before refrigerating.

2. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Line a muffin tin with 12 muffin liners, or lightly butter and flour the tin.

3. In a stand mixer, or with a hand mixer and a large bowl, beat the butter, sugar, and salt together until mixed well. Then add the eggs, vanilla extract, and almond extract and beat until mixed well. Add the half & half or milk and berry puree and beat until mixed. Add the cornstarch and baking powder and mix to incorporate. Then add the flour and beat on medium speed for 30 seconds.

4. With an ice-cream scoop, divide the batter among the muffin tins. Bake for 20 to 22 minutes or until no longer wet looking and comes free of crumbs when tested with a toothpick.

5. Cool completely before frosting.

Strawberry or Any Berry Frosting 
Frosting can be as thick and dense or as fluffy and light as you like by adding more or less powdered sugar. Play around with the amount and see what works for you. (As previously mentioned, we used just a pound of powdered sugar)

Ingredients
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, very soft
¼ cup cream cheese, very soft
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/3 to 1/2 cup of the strawberry/berry puree to taste
1/4 teaspoon pure vanilla extract
1/8 teaspoon almond extract
1/8 teaspoon strawberry extract (Use only if your frosting needs a little more flavor, hopefully you won’t need it)
Powdered sugar, between 1 and 3 pounds depending on consistency preferences

Instructions
1. With a stand mixer or a hand mixer, beat all the ingredients together adding the powdered sugar a few cups at a time until desired consistency is reached. Berry flavor will come out even more after sitting for a bit. Flavor with strawberry extract only if needed. (We didn't need any because our berries were so good) Use immediately and store extra covered in the refrigerator.

2. To frost these, I filled a plastic bag and with frosting and cut off a corner to create a hole about ¾ of an inch wide.  I then pressed a large dollop of frosting onto the middle of the cupcake and then followed the instructions of the Cooking Photographer to gently tilt the cupcakes so the frosting would be moved to the edges. Which it did since it was a bit thin.

3) Top with a fresh raspberry for decoration. Success!