Berry Galette a la Julia

I've always wanted to make a galette. Blackberry season is almost over here, so I went and picked a few quarts after my run this morning. I found a few different galette dough recipes, but I was particularly intrigued by this one by Julia Childs.

Galette Dough

3 tablespoons sour cream

1/3 cup ice water

1 cup all purpose flour

1/4 cup cornmeal

1/2 tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

7 tablespoons cold unsalted butter (cut into 6 or 8 pieces)

*Stir the sour cream and ice water together. Set aside.

*Combine the flour, cornmeal, salt and sugar in a large bowl with a fork.
*Add cold butter pieces and combine with a pastry blender until the butter pieces are the size of bread crumbs to small peas.

*Add sour cream/water mixture 1 tablespoon at a time and toss with a fork to evenly distribute. *You'll end up with wet clumps of dough.

*Carefully combine into a ball without overworking.

*Divide ball in half and shape each half into a disc, wrapped in saran wrap. Refrigerate for at least two hours.

Berry Galette

1/2 Galette dough recipe

1 1/2 cups berries

1 Tbsp + 1 Tsp sugar

1 Tbsp butter

After the sour ceam/water was added, formed into a ball and divided in half.

Roll chilled dough out to about 11" (1/8" thick)

Carefully place dough onto a piece of parchment paper and place berries in the center, leaving 2 - 3 inches of the dough to fold toward the center.
Sprinkle the berries with 1 Tbsp sugar. Also place 1 Tbsp of butter (cut into small bits) over berries.

Fold the edges of dough toward the center, creating pleats.

Lightly brush the crust with water and sprinkle 1 tsp sugar over crust.

Bake 35 - 40 minutes or until golden at 400 degrees.
Eat!

California Fresh

We've lived in Arkansas long enough to have forgotten the wonder of fresh, cheap produce on the central coast. We drove the Pacific Coast Highway toward Big Sur this morning and stumbled upon produce heaven in Moss Landing.

Guacamole, anyone? It would cost me $5 bucks for 7 avocados at home!

I tried to edit this photo 5 times and it just wants to be sideways.

Giant Artichokes for $1.50.

This 33 cent grapefruit is SO huge....it apparently frightens me.

That's a 2-bite cherry. SO sweet!

Grapes!

Size-of-my-head artichokes

And the view from PCH below Carmel.

Cold and foggy today.

Deviled Eggs

DEVILED EGGS

12 hard boiled eggs
1/2 cup light mayonaise
1/2 tsp dry mustard
1/2 tsp onion powder
1 Tbsp vinegar
1/4 tsp salt
1/8 tsp pepper
1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
3 Tbsp chopped dill pickle
Paprika for garnish

Raspberry Lemon Ice Cream Crisp

One of our family favorite desserts is a very simple ice cream cake. It started out just lemony. The addition of raspberries is a new twist on an old favorite. Thanks, Mom! We just took the coveted 'best dessert' award at the annual RS pool party potluck. :)


Raspberry Lemon Ice Cream Crisp


4 cups corn flakes
1/4 cup butter, melted
1 box vanilla ice cream, softened
1 can frozen lemonade concentrate
zest of 2 lemons
3 cups fresh or frozen raspberries



Crush cornflakes and combine with melted butter.
Press into bottom of a 9x13 casserole dish.
Place in freezer.
Combine softened vanilla ice cream, lemonade concentrate and lemon zest.
Pour into cooled crust and spread evenly.
Press fresh or thawed raspberries into top and freeze overnight.
Cut into squares and serve.

What Does Yours Look Like?

This is what dinner looks like around here, lately.

What are you eating when it's 100 degrees out?

Blueberry Syrup

I guess this is why you RINSE and SORT your berries before making syrup or jam...or anything else! Little beetle had been hiding out in my box of berries in the fridge for 24 hours!



I bought a new blender about a month ago because ours has a crack in it, but hadn't yet taken it out of the box.



It blended 7 cups of blueberries (no liquid) into puree in about 20 seconds! I'm convinced it's the most awesome blender ever.

Syrup was so simple! The cliff notes version:

Puree 6 1/2 to 7 cups of blueberries in a blender. Run it for a few minutes and you won't even need a strainer...there will be no solids left.

Add 2 Tbsp lemon juice and 7 cups of sugar.

Bring to a boil.

Skim the foam off the top and ladle into hot, sterilized jars.

Add hot lids and rings.

Detailed recipe HERE.

Blueberry Jam

There is an easy recipe for blueberry jam on the Pickyourown site. Funny that it looks so complicated with all of these pictures. Yes, it's 8 pages! I hung them with magnets so I wouldn't have to flip pages with sticky fingers while I worked. It's really much easier than it looks.



Here's the short-hand version.

Mash 8 cups of blueberries (I put them in my food processor on 'chop.').

Add 1/4 cup lemon juice, 1/2 cup water and 1 box of pectin.

Cook on medium-high until you reach a hard boil (the kind you can't stir out).

Then add 7 cups of sugar and return to a hard boil for another minute.

Ladle into hot, sterilized jars, clean the tops of jars and affix hot lids and rings.

No need to process in a canner if they seal themselves and you hear the lids 'pop.' This happens because the jam is as hot as lava.That's it!

My batch made 9 half pint jars with a little leftover to eat right away.