Blueberry Pie with an Almond Crumble

I finally managed to break the dessert moratorium this weekend under the guise of preparing for our upcoming July 4th barbecue.  Ordinarily I don't prepare for parties this far in advance, but all of A's college roommates are descending on us for the 4th with expectations of a feast, and we will be out of town the weekend before. After racking our brains for a theme, we have settled on traditional American (yeah, creative I know) and plan to serve bacon cheeseburgers with homemade buns, grilled corn, and a number of other goodies. In a few weeks I will try to get a post up featuring the entire menu with prep instructions. 

On top of all that, I have an entire dessert buffet to pull together. Red velvet cupcakes and macarons are on request, but will need to be prepared just before the event. I am concerned about running out of time, so I have decided to pull together some blueberry pies just in case. Fruit pies are great for events like this where you are concerned about prep time, as they can be prepared weeks in advance and then frozen unbaked. Then you just pull them out and bake them when you need them. I have used the pre-made frozen fruit pies for Thanksgiving for years. It is the only way to serve a wide variety of pie when a multi-course family feast is on order. 

The frozen mini-pie method is particularly well suited to bakers who love having homemade desserts on hand but don't have tons of people to feed. With the mini-pies, you can bake your pie one serving at a time. 

After putting together all of the mini-pies, I had enough pie dough and filling left-over for a three inch version. Thank god, because wouldn't it have been tragic if I had to prep all of those pies and then had nothing to enjoy once finished? Needless to say, the "bonus" pie didn't last more than an hour. A and I devoured it... and the fatwah on desserts was over for one weekend. Though it was back in effect on Sunday, I do have the rest of the prep for the barbecue to look forward. Is it possible that me, the hater of winter and all things cold and snowy, might actually be looking forward to the holiday season? 

Recipe after the jump!

Summer Stone Fruit and Peach Sorbet

I was going to write about bread and how to make a sourdough starter this week. Then my bread was a miserable failure. What should have been a fluffy loaf turned emerged from the oven a heavy brick of crusty dough. Gross. I am pretty sure that my failed loaf could be directly attributed to weak yeast. Through shear laziness, I had neglected to feed my started for a few weeks, and when I removed it from the fridge it smelled like it was near death. I was ready to dump the inedible loaf in the garbage, but A wanted to suffer through a few slices. I am completely unwilling to waste calories on sub-par baked goods.

It was really hot this weekend. Normally I love baking bread, but the hot humid weather made my kitchen a nightmare. Seriously, it is not pleasant to work in a small room that contains a box pre-heated to 500 degrees. My failed loaf was just salt on the wound of an unpleasant cooking experience. The only answer to my  harmed ego (I consider myself to be a skilled amateur bread-baker) and the heat in my kitchen was peach sorbet. Yes, I know, this makes two frozen dessert postings in a row. Hopefully I can diversify some in the coming weeks.

Peaches are one of my favorite summer fruits. It is sort of disgusting, but I can eat up to four in a sitting if I have them on hand. Imagine my excitement upon finding ripe peaches for less than $2 a pound at my grocery store. Stone fruit season had started. I bought almost four pounds - enough to make a batch of sorbet and have something leftover for snacking later. 

So you know how last week I said that ice cream was easy? Well... sorbet is even easier. All you need is your favorite fruit, fresh and ripe, and some simple syrup. Sorbet is a staple in our household during the summer, as everything from berries to melon is cheap and plentiful. It is also refreshing in the heat and healthy, other than the added sugar. I suppose that you could omit the sugar if you are on a low carb diet, but it really does enhance the natural flavors of the fruit base. Freezing fruit dulls its flavor - the sugar in the simple syrup helps counteract this effect. 

Recipe after the jump!

Raspberry, Cinnamon and Orange Ice Cream

I am a terrible blogger. Hoboken Cupcake has suffered some true neglect this month, which can be blamed equally on A's fatwa on desserts, my hectic job and trips to California and Rhode Island to visit friends and family. I can't believe that a month has gone by. A MONTH HAS GONE BY!!! Hooray for summer! I can't believe it is finally here. And what does summer mean? Ice cream, of course... and sorbet... but mostly ice cream! It also means that I really need to use all of the raspberries I have in my freezer. They have been there for an embarrassingly long time - embarrassing enough that I am not going to say when I put them there. Let's just say that raspberries freeze well. 

 

My ice cream maker is rapidly becoming my favorite kitchen appliance (thanks to the salpedros, who got it for us as a wedding gift... after I embarrassingly told them that it is what they should get us... nothing like telling your friends to buy you presents... I got some class). Nothing beats homemade ice cream. You can control the stuff that goes in it, raising or lowering the fat and sugar as you wish. You can also create any flavor that you can dream of - flavors like raspberry cinnamon and orange. No more standing in the freezer section searching for the perfect flavor to accompany the pie you made... instead you can make it yourself.

Like most things from scratch, ice cream does take a bit of planning. You can't just decide you want some and then enjoy it 30 minutes later. It takes a least a full day from start to finish, in order to ensure proper freezing. That being said, most recipes only require about 20-25 minutes of active time. The rest of the time is spent waiting... and waiting... and waiting some more. It is definitely worth it. 

An aside - A and I finally decided to get a fancy camera. While I don't think that I will suddenly be posting award winning photography on this blog, I do expect my photos to get much sharper and have better lighting. Alas, I didn't get a macro lens, just a DSLR, but it's about the baby steps, right? Macro lenses are expensive and I have flour to buy!

Recipe after the jump!