Don't even think about turning the oven on!

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Most of the country has been hit with triple digit temps for the last couple of weeks. In places like Minnesota and Wisconsin, it's called an epic heatwave. Here in the deep South, we just call it summer. We rarely make it through a summer without at least a few days of 100+ temps. That kind of heat just makes me want to find a cool spot, a good book, and a glass of sweet tea. The last thing I want to do is turn on the oven, but since we still have to eat, I try to find things that can be made with as little cooking as possible. This triple berry tiramisu is the perfect dessert for those hot summer days. It's no-bake, yeah! Full of ripe fresh berries tucked into a lemony cream, yeah! And, it's served COLD, woohoo! Okay, so you do have to turn on the stove for like 5 minutes to make the syrup, but that's it as far as having to cooking anything for this dessert. This tiramisu is the perfect antidote for a sweltering hot summer day!

Triple Berry Tiramisu
Source: King Arthur website, Fresh Berry Tiramisu, Adapted
Printable Recipe
2-7ounce packages of ladyfinger cookies

SYRUP
Zest of 2 lemons, peeled in strips with a peeler
Juice of 2 lemons (1/3 to 1/2 cup lemon juice)
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup water
2 tablespoons Grand Marnier or orange juice (optional)

FILLING
1 pound mascarpone cheese
2 tablespoons lemon zest
1 cup whipping cream
1/2 cup confectioners’ sugar
2 quarts berries: raspberries, blueberries, strawberries or any combination you like

TO MAKE THE SYRUP: Combine all the syrup ingredients in a small pot and bring the mixture to a simmer, stirring occasionally until the sugar dissolves. Once the mixture is clear, remove the syrup from the heat, strain it, and allow it to cool.

TO MAKE THE FILLING: Place the mascarpone in a mixing bowl, and stir in the lemon zest. Add the whipping cream a third at a time, stirring between additions until the mixture is smooth and starts to thicken slightly. Stir in the confectioner’s sugar.

TO ASSEMBLE: Lightly spray a 9-inch square pan with cooking spray. Drop the ladyfingers one at a time, into the cooled lemon syrup. Be sure to flip them over to coat both sides with the syrup. Do not over soak the ladyfingers or the tiramisu will be soggy. Fit as many ladyfingers into you pan as you need to cover the bottom of the pan, you may need to break a few to fit them in. Add a layer of your mixed fruit on top of the ladyfingers. Top the fruit with half of the cream mixture and add another layer of ladyfingers that have been dipped in the syrup. Spread the rest of the cream mixture on top of the lady fingers. Arrange the rest of the fruit on top. Chill the tiramisu for at least one hour before serving.

Super Simple Raspberry Sauce

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Valentine's day is looming just around the corner, which got me thinking about things that go together like: Romeo and Juliet, Ozzie and Harriet, Fred and Ginger, Hubs and Me. (sappy I know!) Naturally this got me thinking of my all-time fav food pairings as well. Spaghetti and meatballs, peanut butter and jelly, chips and salsa, and the list could go on and on. Raspberries pair well with almost any dessert. Tart, tangy raspberries + dark rich chocolate = perfection! The great thing about making a fruit sauce is that frozen berries work just as well, if not better than fresh berries. So you can make a fruit sauce anytime, not just when the berries are in season.

I put the raspberry sauce between the layers of this vanilla cake with cream cheese frosting...yum!

This raspberry sauce is so simple and delicious, you'll want to have it on hand all the time. It should hold for about 2 weeks if kept refrigerated. I keep it in the fridge in a plastic squeeze bottle which makes it easy to use anytime.

Raspberry Sauce   (printable recipe)

Yield: about 1 cup
Ingredients:
12 oz. (1 1/2 cup) frozen raspberries
1 tablespoon cornstarch
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1/3 cup sugar

Directions:
In a small sauce pan, combined all of the ingredients and bring to a boil over medium-high heat. Cook until the berries have broken down about 5 min. You can use the sauce now if you don't mind the seeds. At this point, while the sauce is still warm, I pour it into a sieve and strain out (most of) the seeds. To get a completely seedless sauce you will need to line your sieve with cheese cloth.

This raspberry sauce is very versatile. It's great on pancakes, yogurt and ice cream. It's also makes an amazing filling for a layer cake. Raspberry sauce elevates even an ordinary dessert into something special.

Drizzle it on your dessert plate with whatever your serving and you'll look like a pastry superstar!

Apricot Raspberry Pie

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I can't believe that it's already July! It's been a hectic summer but I'm getting back into the swing of things. Managing a new farmers market has been fun but extremely time consuming. The best part however is I get to buy freshly picked produce right from the farmer that grew it.
Here in the South, we are blessed with an abundance of fresh fruit this time of the year. This week I found apricots. I look forward to fresh apricots each year. The apricot season is short so I try to eat as many as possible while they'er available. I bought a large bag so I could use some in baking. I wanted to make an apricot pie. I've used apricots in many things but had never made a pie with them. This pie is really quick to put together and looks beautiful when finished.

Raspberries and apricots really compliment each other so I decided to use both in this pie but you could use just apricots if you prefer. If you use only apricots, you will need to use about 2 pounds of fruit.

Apricot Raspberry Pie
Adapted from Comfort Me with Apples by Ruth Reichl

(Print Recipe)

Serves 8
1 1/2 lbs fresh apricots
6 oz fresh raspberries
1 stick unsalted butter
3/4 cup sugar
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon grated nutmeg
1/3 cup slivered almonds (optional)

One 9" unbaked pie shell. You can use your favorite pie crust recipe or use a purchased pie crust.
Preheat oven to 400ºF with rack in lower third. Cut apricots (with skins) apart into halves, discarding pits. Melt butter in a small heavy saucepan over medium heat, then stir in sugar, flour, almonds, and nutmeg, and remove from heat. Cool mixture until firm enough to crumble, 10 to 15 minutes.

Put apricots and raspberries in pie shell and crumble butter mixture over them. Bake pie, with a foil-lined baking pan on rack below it (to catch drips), 10 minutes.

Reduce oven temperature to 350ºF and continue to bake until top is golden, 50 minutes to 1 hour more.
Cool pie to warm or room temperature on a rack.

I'm addicted to ya baby

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So I guess I'm a bit addicted to food blogs. Okay more than just a bit. I mean who has over 50 Google bookmarks, all for recipes from other blogs?!? Actually all of you amazing food bloggers out there (you know who you are!!), are the cause this addiction. Tempting me with your beautiful photo's and your amazing sounding recipes. How dare you! It's like crack I tell you, as find myself adding yet another bookmark for yet another recipe I can't wait to make. And then all these recipes sit there, bookmarked and waiting, taunting me silently. MAKE ME, MAKE ME, MAKE ME! I want to make you all. Really I do! So many wonderful recipes and so little time...
Oh and not only do I want to make all these wonderful recipes, but now when I cook I spend time thinking about how to make my food so that it photographs well.
I admit it sounds a bit bizarre, possible a little crazy, but reading through other food blogs makes me pretty certain that I may not be alone in this obsession/addiction.
Anyway one of the recipes I'd bookmarked that's been hanging out waiting to be made was a recipe for Devil’s Food Cupcakes with Raspberry Jam Buttercream and Raspberry Truffle. It came from Peabody's blog Culinary Concoctions. I mean the name alone Devils Food Cupcakes... Mmm...Raspberry Jam Buttercream...OMG...AND Raspberry Truffle...Are you kidding me?!? Do those cupcakes sound amazing or what? Of course I immediately bookmarked that recipe. And there it sat, waiting patiently for me to find the time/occasion to actually make them.
Well wait no more! I had several people to make cupcakes for this week and couldn't wait to give this recipe a try.
I have just a word of warning; if you visit Peabody's blog, (and I encourage you to visit) beware, you'll be bookmarking recipes left and right. Don't say you weren't warned!

The chocolate raspberry mixture used for filling the raspberries is a basic ganache. I decided instead of filling the raspberries with the gancahe, that I would swirl the tops of the cupcakes in it and then frost them with the raspberry buttercream.

Devil's Food cake Cupcakes with Chocolate Raspberry Ganache and Raspberry Jam Buttercream

Deeply Dark Devil’s Food Cake

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
3/4 tsp baking soda
3/4 tsp salt
11 TBSP unsalted butter, softened
1 1/2 cups granulated sugar
2/3 cup Dutch-processed cocoa powder
2 large eggs
1 tsp vanilla
1 1/3 cups warm water

Preheat oven to 325F. Grease and flour mini cupcake pans.
Sift together the flour, baking soda, baking powder, and salt in a medium bowl. Mix to incorporate.
Beat the butter at medium speed until creamy. Gradually add the sugar and beat on high speed for about 3 minutes. Add the cocoa powder and beat for 1 minute. Scrape down the sides with a spatula. Beat in the eggs one at a time. Beat in the vanilla. On low speed, add the flour mixture in three additions alternating with the warm water in two additions. Scrape down the sides of the bowl and mix at low speed for 30 seconds. Pour batter into prepared pans.
Bake cupcakes for 13-15 minutes.
Let cool for 5 minutes in pan and remove cupcakes from pan. Let cool on wire rack. When cool, I swirled the tops of each cupcake in the still warm chocolate raspberry ganache. The only other change I made was to add some cream cheese to the buttercream. Just because I like cream cheese icing!

Cake Source: Adapted from The Cake Book by Tish Boyle

5 ounce semisweet chocolate
1/3 cup heavy cream
1/4cup seedless raspberry jam

Place chocolate and raspberry jam in a heat proof bowl.
Bring cream to a boil.
Pour cream over chocolate and jam and let sit for about 3 minutes.
Whisk together chocolate mixture. If it is still a little lumpy, put in microwave for a few seconds and whisk again. Dip the top of cupcakes in the chocolate. Be careful to just get the tops or ganache will run down the sides. Put cupcakes in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes or until ganache is set up. Then decorate with the Raspberry Buttercream.


Raspberry Jam Buttercream
1 cup unsalted butter, at room temperature
4oz cream cheese (optional)
6-8 cups powdered sugar
1/2 cup seedless raspberry jam

Place butter, cream cheese, and jam in a mixing bowl of an electric mixer fitted with a paddle attachment. Cream butter and jam until well incorporated, about 2 minutes. Add powdered sugar, one cup at a time until you reach desired consistency. If frosting gets too thick you can add a little milk to thin it out.

These cupcakes are sooo good. One bookmarked recipe down!