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Mixed ripe and not so ripe fruit


Suvir Saran

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Recipe please for what I could make using an assortment of fruits.

I would love a recipe for a Clafoutis, cobbler, crisp or pie... But preferably a clafoutis or cobbler.

Anyone?????

Want to make it tonight and without much fuss.

Thanks in advance to all that can help. Not counting on just the Pros/Mods here, so please share any and all recipes or tips you may have. The Pros seem to never be here when one needs them at short notice..... They have day jobs.... Bless them and their employers and their talent.

I need help soon though. Thanks!

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Suvir, what fruit do you have?  That makes a big difference.

Sorry Varmint!

Cherries (not sour), perfectly ripe and amazingly delicious and deep cherry color

Peaches, very ripe

Kiwis

Oranges

Strawberries

Blackberries

Blueberries

Raspberies

Pineapple

Bananas

Lychees

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Suvir, what fruit do you have?  That makes a big difference.

Mr. McCord, if you are thinking Cobbler, can you share a recipe? I have really never made one.

Actually, made one alongside Nathalie Dupree once, but that was it.

Would love to have the quantities, if at all one can work with a recipe when making a cobbler, so this first time I make one, I know what I should look for in the future, when I play with this basic.

Thanks for any and all help you and others give me.

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OK, let's do cobbler -- very simple. Take the berries, cherries (pitted) and peaches (peeled, pitted, and sliced) and toss with sugar (amount depends on total amount of fruit; figure about 1/2 cup per 4 cups fruit), juice of half a lemon and several tablespoons of all purpose flour per 4 cups of fruit. Add a bit of cinnamon, too. Pour fruit into casserole.

Oven at 400. Bake fruit for about 10-15 minutes.

Make biscuit topping: 2 cups all purpose flour, 1-1/2 Tbsp. baking powder, 1/4 tsp baking soda, 3 Tbsp. sugar, dash of salt. Cut in 6 Tbsp. of unsalted butter. Add about 1/4 cup cream, 1/2 cup buttermilk, 1/4 cup milk (I can't recall the proportions exactly, but it's just biscuits). If you don't have buttermilk, just sour your milk with lemon juice. Mix gently. You don't exactly knead the dough, but you fold it a couple of times. Roll out to 1/2 inch and cut into rounds. Put biscuits on top of partially baked fruit. Sprinkle sugar on top of biscuit dough. Bake until biscuits are thoroughly baked and golden (you don't want them particularly gummy on the bottom, but that will be somewhat inevitable. Let cool somewhat, but you want to serve this warm with ice cream. It will be fairly runny, but ungodly delicious.

Dean McCord

VarmintBites

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Yes, Suvir, that is a bit too much. After thinking about it, you should use about 3/4 cup liquid total. Add more flour + baking powder if needed. Have you made biscuits before?

Sorry I couldn't recall exact amounts, as I make these sweet biscuits without a recipe and add liquid based on feel.

Dean McCord

VarmintBites

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Yes, Suvir, that is a bit too much.  After thinking about it, you should use about 3/4 cup liquid total.  Add more flour + baking powder if needed.  Have you made biscuits before?

Sorry I couldn't recall exact amounts, as I make these sweet biscuits without a recipe and add liquid based on feel.

Varmint, I have made biscuits before, but as an assitant to Nathalie and her Biscuit Maker friend that she wrote about often in her books. This lady makes them without any measure and using her hands to lift ingredients out of containers.

Actually, the cobbler is in the oven now... baking. The liquid was just fine. It worked perfectly. I needed to add 2 teaspoons more liquid and I chose cream.

Shall eat it after dinner, and I shall report back.

Thanks for all your help and the recipe. :smile:

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Oven at 400.  Bake fruit for about 10-15 minutes.

It was delicious and very very runny.

In fact, I had baked the fruit by itself for 25 minutes (10 minutes) extra. And yet, the end product was rather too runny. Should I correct something??? Or is that part of the parcel? I have eaten cobblers in the South, and they were not so runny. That is what makes me wonder.

The taste was very good. The biscuit was superb. Thanks Varmint!

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Suvir, there's a couple of things you can do to "tighten" this dish up, but I generally don't worry about it. You can add corn starch or more flour, and if you really want to go crazy, tapioca could work as well. However, I think of this dish like a fruit compote with sweet biscuits that's designed to be served with ice cream, using the biscuits to sop up the juices. I prefer the purity of the juices without the thickeners, as they can add some bizarre textural elements that I'd choose to avoid. Thus, yes, you can thicken it up, but it comes at a cost. All a matter of personal preference, of course.

Dean McCord

VarmintBites

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Oven at 400.  Bake fruit for about 10-15 minutes.

It was delicious and very very runny.

In fact, I had baked the fruit by itself for 25 minutes (10 minutes) extra. And yet, the end product was rather too runny. Should I correct something??? Or is that part of the parcel? I have eaten cobblers in the South, and they were not so runny. That is what makes me wonder.

The taste was very good. The biscuit was superb. Thanks Varmint!

Suvir,

I agree with Varmint re the juices. I don't mind eating a fruit pie with a spoon! But if you're also concerned with presentation, such as a get together, Instant ClearJel® is popular. It's relatively inexpensive ($3) and does half a dozen pies.

--------------

Bob Bowen

aka Huevos del Toro

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Oven at 400.  Bake fruit for about 10-15 minutes.

It was delicious and very very runny.

In fact, I had baked the fruit by itself for 25 minutes (10 minutes) extra. And yet, the end product was rather too runny. Should I correct something??? Or is that part of the parcel? I have eaten cobblers in the South, and they were not so runny. That is what makes me wonder.

The taste was very good. The biscuit was superb. Thanks Varmint!

Suvir,

I agree with Varmint re the juices. I don't mind eating a fruit pie with a spoon! But if you're also concerned with presentation, such as a get together, Instant ClearJel® is popular. It's relatively inexpensive ($3) and does half a dozen pies.

Thanks for the link!

Do you think adding corn starch instead of flour could help? I have read recipes where they add corn flour in place of the flour i added yesterday. Could that be an easy fix?

I personally had no problem with the juices. IN fact I loved the juice as it tasted amazing with the biscuit and the ice cream.

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Varmint,

I made the cobbler again today. Blackberries, blueberries, raspberries and peaches. It was amazing. I baked the fruit by itself for 30 minutes and then topped with the biscuit.

The end result was just perfectly runny, thick runny and sooo very delicious. I had to speak about you and your wonderful ways and expertise and generosity.... How else would everyone enjoy your cobbler appropriately. Thanks for the recipe. It is superb. :smile:

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Suvir, there's a couple of things you can do to "tighten" this dish up, but I generally don't worry about it.  You can add corn starch or more flour,  and if you really want to go crazy, tapioca could work as well.  However, I think of this dish like a fruit compote with sweet biscuits that's designed to be served with ice cream, using the biscuits to sop up the juices.  I prefer the purity of the juices without the thickeners, as they can add some bizarre textural elements that I'd choose to avoid.  Thus, yes, you can thicken it up, but it comes at a cost.  All a matter of personal preference, of course.

Varmint I made this again, only berries and it was superb.

I cooked the fruit by itself for 25 minutes. That seemed to have thickened the juice to the perfect consistency for my taste and those of my guests here.

They loved the biscuit topping (thanks to you of course) and the dessert as a whole (again thanks to you).

I served it with ice cream and also heavy cream for those that wanted it. Actually, heavy cream was even more popular than ice cream.

The berries and their juice were superb. I like the fact that your recipe has no corn starch. Makes it so much more desirable to me.

I thank you again.. and shall again and again as I make this simple, quick and really tasty dessert. :smile:

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This dessert is just so darned pure. The flavors are clean, it's easy to make, and guests love it. I can't tell you how many times I've been asked what I added to the berries to make it taste so good -- they never believe me when I say, "sugar."

Peaches do indeed make this a much more watery dish. I'm making a quick peach cobbler for dinner tonight -- I'm actually hosting a couple of eGulleteers!!

Dean McCord

VarmintBites

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Peach-Plum Clafouti: so, so good.

This is what is in my oven this minute (with four cups of Frog Hollow peaches!):

Paula Dean's Peach Cobbler. Five ingredients, and the easiest thing in the world. No kidding. I'll post a pic when it comes out.

It's literally this easy: melt butter in deep dish. Pour batter on top of butter. Pour cooked fruit on top of batter. Bake.

Voilà!

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I just clicked on the Clafouti recipe, and realized the link was to your own site.

I guess I was on target wanting to see you do photography. You already are.

Thanks for taking time to post this photograph. You did indeed initiate the uninitiated inside me. And now, for my first time, I shall prepare without anothers guidance, a cobbler with the batter below the fruit. Cannot wait to see the batter rise above. :rolleyes:

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Suvir, you're just a cobbler making fool these days! :biggrin: One thing I've done recently with apple pies, is macerate the apple pieces, and cook the liquid until it's thick. It really makes a difference. On the other hand, it sounds like you've got it all under control now. Me? I have no qualms tilting the dish to my mouth and drinking all the left over liquid! :wub:

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Thank you, Suvir, for your kind words. I love your writing—in the few days I've been aboard here—and consider it an honor that you like my work. I've only been photographing for about five years, thank God for digital cameras!

Just one note to the Paula Dean recipe. I made it first with unsalted butter, and used less sugar than is required (I always use less sugar). I'd say 5/6 cup or 3/4 cup in both the peaches and the batter.

Yesterday, I unthinkingly used salted butter, and I did not like it nearly as much.

So I recommend unsalted butter and probably less sugar, depending on the sweetness of your peaches. Mine were extraordinarily sweet.

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Oooh, Suvir, I have another recipe for you. I don't know if you know about these farm dinners I attend (and photograph) for "Outstanding in the Field," but I have been to over a dozen now, from the very beginning in 1999.

In June, we went to a dinner at which Tracy Des Jardins, of Jardinière in San Francisco, was guest chef. Her pastry chef, Francisco Almaguer, created what is literally one of the two best desserts I have ever had in my life, a mixed berry crumble with whipped crème fraîche. I begged for the recipe, and they gave it to me so I could post it on the OitF site. (Note: the Framboise is not optional. Its presence lifted the dessert from the sublime to the ethereal.

I'm telling you what: heaven on a fork is what that dessert is. (The second best dessert was also at a farm dinner: David Kinch's Sent Sovi pastry chef created an apple cobbler that made you drunk just smelling it. They didn't give me the recipe, alas.)

I haven't made it yet, but am saving it for a special occasion. Of course, the fruit needs to be perfect.

Edit: I need to qualify how amazing it is that a chocolate fiend would claim two fruit desserts as being extraordinary—that's a testimony to the fruit and the chefs.

Edited by tanabutler (log)
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I made the peach cobbler tonight. It was superb. The berry cobbler last night was amazing.

The peaches were very sweet and very ripe. I added almond flour into the fruit as also into the pastry. Made it really special and delicious. Toast the almonds just ever so delicately.. and then cool them and gring them. You could also buy professionally ground almond flour.. it is so much more perfect... but I am always happier with the coarseness and taste of home ground toasted almond flour. It has much more character and taste. And certainly not as refined as store bought, but totally acceptable if not better for some desserts.

tanabutler, thanks for all the links. And yes I was very impressed by your photography... and congratulations to you for being so good so quickly. And yes digital cameras make life so much easier... But in the end of the day, it is all about having the eye and talent... the camera is only as good as who operates it or sees through the lens. You need to take some credit, if not a lot of it here. You are good.

Varmint, how was your peach cobbler?? How did the eGulleteers enjoy it?

Varmint, thanks for making me into a cobbler fool (hehe... elyse coined that name :smile: ). I have enjoyed being foolish this summer, it has been fun making cobblers so very often... and even more fun, for I have had some great fruit in the kitchen. Also, I have this most amazing deep pie dish from Emile Henry, and the fluted edges are perfect to have the fruit juice dripping from and getting sticky around. Makes me feel so very proud to be serving something so comforting but also so attractive. :smile:

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Sumir, it's so much fun to read about your fruit-filled adventures.

FYI, the clafouti recipe I posted contains ground almonds, and they add something more than the sum of the parts to the recipe, I think. Almost a custard flavor—certainly something more than I expected. That recipe is almost as easy as the cobbler one: butter a pan, chopped uncooked fruit on butter, batter on fruit, and top with ground almonds and crumbled brown sugar. Some people use white sugar, but they are WRONG WRONG WRONG—they're missing the rustic perfection that a clafouti is.

So, you're a cobbler fool? Ever made a peach fool? (That's just a sample—I don't know that I'd make that particular one, but it's fun to link to the recipe.)

You just reminded me that we've got three gigantic blackberry patches on our property, and it's high time I got out there with the kidlets and picked some. Blackberry pie, mmmmmmmmmm. My fourteen-year-old daughter is an amazing baker.

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Thanks for starting this thread, Suvir. Great stuff from you, Varmit and Tana. I am going to do a cobbler tonight, and was wondering if I substitute "Heavy Whipping Cream" for Heavy Cream", if it will make much of a difference. My understanding is that Whipping Cream has a little more fat than Heavy Cream, but do I need to do anything different?

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