"fruit desserts" news and stories

With a warm, exotic note of saffron, filled with a blend of fruit and topped with buttercream icing, golden raspberries and pistachio nuts, this cupcake is as fresh and golden as morning light. Oh, and it's vegan, so blogger norwichnuts created this cupcake recipe with margarine instead of butter.

Saffron is not a spice to go crazy with; just a teaspoon of the threads is more than enough to give the cupcakes an earthy undertone. Too much and they'll be bitter. Fun fact: The stamens from about 150 flowers (the Crocus sativus) are hand-harvested to produce just .035 ounces of saffron. So do it proud.

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It's a soup, it's a dessert, it's a fruity, chilled-out refresher to end a meal. June is strawberry season -- time to eat bowls of berries and cream and to bake some biscuits for shortcake. Try something new, with this recipe for strawberry and lavender soup, from blogger twohelmets, who adds the crisp Portuguese wine vinho verde (literally, "green wine") to give it sparkle. Add a pinch of lavender, a bay leaf and then garnish each bowl with a basil leaf, for an undertone of herbs.

Gazpacho also goes berry-licious and minty in this recipe from Kitchen Daily.

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Wandering past the mini-farmers market than takes place on Tuesday mornings by Rittenhouse Square, I spotted a basket of rhubarb. It's been nearly a month since I'd seen rhubarb at the market, I had thought it was gone until next spring. But it was there, and at a fairly good price too, so I scooped up a pound to go with the elderly strawberries in my fridge.

I sliced up the fruit and rhubarb and tossed them with a little vanilla-infused sugar and a squirt of lemon juice. While they sat, getting juicy and delicious, I quickly pulled together a topping. I like the topping for crisps to be reminiscent of granola (occasionally I actually just use granola if I'm in a hurry and have it around) and so I dumped approximately a cup and a half of rolled oats into a bowl (I do not measure for things like this). I added a cup of chopped pecans, a sprinkling of cinnamon and nutmeg, a bit of light brown sugar and half a stick of softened butter. I used a pastry blender just to break down the butter a bit and finished combining it all with my fingers.

I transferred the fruit from bowl to baking dish and evenly distributed the oat/nut/sugar/butter mixture across the top. It went into the oven for about 25 minutes at 350 degrees, until the fruit was tender and the nuts were toasted. It was delicious hot, but it is even better for breakfast, straight out of the fridge, with a scoop of plain yogurt along side.

photo by Marisa McClellan

I just got off the phone with my sister. Looks like we're doing something different for Christmas this year. Instead of the usual turkey and stuffing and veggies, we're going with a mix: a ham, lasagna, casseroles, green bean salad, antipasto. Oh, and desserts. Lots and lots of desserts, including a half dozen different pies, brownies, cookies, candy, and other things. Whatever progress I made exercising the past few weeks is going to vanish, quickly.

But desserts don't have to be bad for you. This Food & Wine slideshow has pics and recipes for 32 different desserts you can make for the holidays and not feel guilty (well, not completely guilty anyway), including a Melon Sorbet, a warm Citrus Gratin with Toasted Almonds, Dark Chocolate Bark with Walnuts and Black Cherries, and Banana Souffles. Not all of the desserts are low fat, but the ones that aren't still have a lot of good things in them.

The site also has some ideas for healthy holiday meals from cookbook author Melissa Clark.

Find Christmas dessert recipes by Gail Simmons and Christmas recipes on KitchenDaily.

Any dessert that involves fruit is a good dessert, but a cobbler is something special. Cobblers are the epitome of simple, homey fruit desserts, the type of recipe that even the least competent baker can put together because there is no crust to roll out and no special preparation of the fruit needed in the vast majority of cobbler recipes. Cobblers is a brand new book that starts with the easy, well-known classic cobblers and evolves them into the sort of desserts you'd expect to find at a four star restaurant, everything from Apple to Apricot and Lavender cobblers are covered, all with the same basic method. The book also offers some unique variations on what seems like a standard dish, with a dark chocolate cobbler, and even some savory cobbler recipes that a laden with veggies.

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