Triple Berry Cobbler

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Today's recipe is one I made for my grandma's birthday dinner last weekend. We all got together and my mum and my aunt made stuffed veal breast (because that's what my grandma always made for big family-meals). We ate our own weight in cheese at the farmers market, and then we brought even more home. I baked a cake, or two. And then there was the berry cobbler.
When I was in high school I used to make this apple and berry cobbler whenever I had people over. The main reason was that you could bake it in advance, take it out of the oven slightly early and then just stick it back in when people were nearly done eating their pasta.
I like pasta. A lot. And if I'm having people over for dinner chances are fairly hight that  it's going to involve pasta. I don't know about you, but I don't see the point in slaving in the kitchen all day long when people come over for the company. So why not eat something that's simple and will allow everybody do focus on what's important - gossip :)
Anyhow, how did we end up with the pasta? Let's get back to dessert!
So, what can I tell you about the cobbler, other than that I tend to stop talking and focus on eating as much as I can when anything involving a cobbler or crumble or buckle or a crisp is sitting in front of me. Because somehow these dishes make a bad day seem much better and a good day (like this time I made it) just phenomenal.
This cobbler is a twist on the one I used to make in high school which was based on a recipe in one of the early Jamie Oliver cookbooks (before he went off to save the world and whatnot).

Triple Berry Cobbler
1kg Blueberries, Blackberries, and Strawberries (not each but that's the combined weight)
2 tsp Balsamic Vinegar
100g Sugar
2 tsp Cornflour
200g Flour
1 scant tsp Baking Powder
1 scant tsp Salt
200ml Milk
150g Butter
Juice of 1/2 Lime
Cinnamon & Nutmeg

Preheat your oven to 180˚C.
Combine the berries (half or quarter the strawberries), balsamic vinegar and 150g of the sugar in a saucepan and heat over a medium heat for a few minutes. The berries will begin to sweat. Add the cornflour, stir until everything is combined and transfer into a 23cm or so pie dish (one of those deep ones).
Mix the milk and lime and set aside (I  started doing this when I didn't have any buttermilk at home with some lemon juice, but the lime juice adds a lovely flavour you don't get when you're using buttermilk, hence the extra step).
Combine the flour, baking powder, dals and remaining 50g sugar in a bowl, cut in the butter until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add a generous pinch of nutmeg, then stir in the milk.
Drop pieces of the (fairly sticky) dough onto the berries. They don't have to be pretty or completely equal in size, I tend to aim for plum-sized blobs of dough.
Sprinkle with some cinnamon and perhaps another tablespoon or so of sugar and then it's off into the oven for 40-50 minutes until the biscuits are golden and the fruit is bubbling from between the biscuits.
This cobbler is lovely by itself, but ice-cream or whipped cream or even custard obviously don't hurt either.

Summer Fruit Tartlets

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I had a rather fabulous dinner with Anna and Preston the other day. We started off with some mussels followed by some really nice salmon with a pistachio crust (you'll get that recipe at some point, I promise!) and then ended it with some fruit tartlets.
Anna and I have made those tartlets on several occasions now and I am in love with them because they are so easy to make, look super pretty and are the perfect end to any meal (yes, the last leftover one was a very lovely end to my breakfast of cinnamon toast crunch yesterday).
I used blackberries and peaches this time, but they are really nice just with blackberries, or apple slices, or cherries, pretty much whatever fruit you have sitting around in your kitchen.

Summer Fruit Tartlets
For the pastry:
90g Wholegrain Spelt Flour
40g Buckwheat Flour
40g Fine Cornmeal (not cornflour, but more like super fine polenta)
50g Butter (refrigerated)
30g Coconut Oil (refrigerated)
1/2 tsp Sugar
A Pinch of Salt
Some Ice Water

For the filling:
Enough fruit to fill 12 mini-tartlets i.e.
24 Blackberries
or 12 Blackberries and 1 Peach
or 1 large Cooking Apple

Some more coconut oil to grease a 12 cup muffin tin.

We are going to make a pastry dough using a method called fraisage (if you're completely lost, have a look at the explanation at Have Kinves, Will Cook). So all you need to do is, mix the flours, sugar and salt, cut in the fats into hazelnut-sized pieces and then rub them into the four mixture until you have pea-sized pieces. You'll want to do this very quickly because otherwise the fat will melt (and the fat is what makes the dough flaky). Bind the dough with some ice water (one or two tablespoons should be enough for this dough) and scrape it together into a shaggy lump.
Now, take a piece of dough and smear it over a floured work-surface. Stare at the lovely thin layer of butter that is now embedded in the flour for a second before you repeat the process with the rest of the dough. Then you shape into a rectangular lump (it doesn't have to be perfect but i find having something to work with makes rolling out the dough a lot easier later) and refrigerate the pastry for at least an hour.

Preheat your oven to 220˚C.

Get the fruit ready - wash whatever needs to be washed, if I'm using peaches, I peel them (stick them into boiling water for 5 minutes, then into an ice-bath, and the skin should easily come off) and then I normally simmer them in a syrup (two parts sugar, one part water) for a couple of minutes. If I use berries, I sometimes only sprinkle them with sugar.

Grease a 12 cup muffin tin.
Take the pastry out of the fridge and roll it out thinly - think 3 mm max. Then cut out 12 round pieces - I use a 6cm cookie cutter, but a glass will work just as fine.
Line each cup with a piece of pastry. You will want to push them in so they are at the bottom of the cup but don't push them in too much or they won't want to come out in one piece.
Fill each pastry with some fruit, sprinkle with some sugar or spices if you feel like it and then bake them for about 20 minutes. I tend to check every couple of minutes towards the end, depending on how much fruit is in the tartlets they will look nice and crisp and fully baked a few minutes sooner or later, so keep checking.

Allow the tartlets to cool slightly on a wire rack and enjoy them with some coffee or ice-cream and a really good conversation :)

Let's Call It Trifle...

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As I promised you last night, here is the recipe for my take on trifle. We've been calling it trifle mainly because we can't think of a better word, but if you're like me and the thought of shop-bought custard mixed with tinned 'fruit cocktail' makes you not want to have desert for the next month, then this might be the desert for you :)

It's especially handy when you've been invited to a pot-luck dinner and you know there won't be any space in the fridge or when you're having a dinner party and you know you'll be too busy to deal with the desert in the evening - make it in the morning, even the night before (because it get's better and better if you leave it to do it's magic for more than just a couple of hours).

Stacked Berry Trifle

Sponge Fingers (for my pyrex bowl I go though about 300g of them)

1kg 0% Greek Yoghurt or Quark or Curd  (in my mum's recipe this gets mixed with some whipped cream but I don't like what that does to the flavour, but if you don't like the taste of the above try combining it with some freshly whipped cream)

150g Sugar 

1 tbsp Cointreau 

5cm (or so) Vanilla Pod

500g Frozen Mixed Berries

Mix the Greek yoghurt with the sugar and Cointreau, scrape the seeds out of the vanilla pod and add to the mix. This will be rather sweet but unless you don't have any red currants in your berry mix you'll need the sweetness of the yoghurt mix to balance their tartness.

Also, if you don't want to use alcohol in the mix, just replace the Cointreau with some orange or lemon juice.

Put some sponge fingers at the bottom of whichever bowl you will be serving the trifle in, cover with some yoghurt mix and then add a layer of berries.

Repeat until the bowl is full/you've run out of ingredients. It's nice to finish with a yoghurt or berry layer, though.

Cover and either store it in your fridge or somewhere it's out of your way in your kitchen :)

Porridge - your best friend

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In case you haven't noticed, I really like porridge. I would even go as far as saying it's one of my favourite meals on this planet.
I love how you can dress it up, dress it down, eat it for breakfast, lunch and dinner, eat it hot, eat it cold, put it into scones or bread - the options are endless.
While I am very fond of plain porridge my all time favourite porridge is with peanut butter and berries. It will keep you going for hours and hours and it just tastes amazing :)
A lot of my German friends (yes, you know who you are! Don't even pretend ;) ) keep making fun of me because they equate porridge with something called Haferschleim.
Haferschleim (at least the stuff I grew up on) tastes about as good as it sounds...it's the kinda stuff my mum would feed me when I was really sick and 'because it's gonna make you feel better' you make it fairly salty or, even worse, use vegetable stock instead of water or milk, for me that was always the kinda stuff that would make me feel better in an instant because even pretending to feel good when you've got the flu is better than eating that stuff.
So, if that's the kinda stuff you're thinking off when I'm talking about porridge, then I wholeheartedly agree with you.
But if you've ever had 'proper' porridge mad by an old Scottish lady somewhere in a B&B in the middle of nowhere (and we're not talking about the places that give you instant, it has to be the 'real' stuff!) you will probably understand (if you still don't then I'm not sure whether I can continue being friends with you ;) ).
Anyway, while I really like plain porridge with a pinch of salt in it, let me tell you about the peanut butter and berry one.
It's super easy, super yummy and even fairly good for you (though, if you eat the whole thing yourself you might want to go for a run or spend some more time in the gym tonight).

Katharina's Favourite Porridge
1/3 cup of either Rolled Oats/Barley Flakes/Rye Flakes (or a mix of them, which is what I normally do) - that's just under 30 grams for the metric people amongst you
400-500 ml Water
A pinch of Salt
1tsp Peanut Butter
1 handfull Fresh or Frozen Berries or two...or three....it's berries, you can't ever eat too many berries :)
1 tsp Agave/Maple Syrup

Bring the water to a boil, add the salt and mix in the oats. Cook over a low heat for 20 to 30 minutes (yes, you could also microwave it but that won't be as nice, and if you're really in a rush, just have muesli or instant porridge instead, seriously...)
If the mix looks very dry towards the end, either take it off the heat or, if the oats are still quite chunky and you want them really well done :), add some more water or some milk and keep going until you feel they're done the way you like them.
Take the porridge off the heat, stir in the peanut butter and the berries and drizzle with the syrup.
Now, enjoy your porridge and then get back to work ;)

Blackberry Ice-Cream

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Today's recipe is for Daniel who grows blackberries on his balcony (I think the fact that so many of you are actually growing stuff other than flowers and herbs on your balconies is amazingly awesome!!!).
Since I got a picture of the first ripe blackberry yesterday I am now keeping my promise by posting the recipe I've been sitting on like a child sits on the coolest christmas present it has found like ever :) (seriously, it was like being 5 again, and yes, before you ask - I am rather proud of this recipe since all the flavours actually came together in a way that was even nicer than what I had imagined).
Anyhow, I got inspired by an article about egg-free ice-cream in the NY Times a few weeks back, so here's my take on the theme.

Blackberry Ice-Cream
2 cups Blackberries
2 cups Cream
3 tbsp Agave syrup (you might want to add more if your blackberries are quite sour)
1/8 tsp Fleur de Sel
2 tbsp Rum
A piece of cinnamon and a cardamom pod.

Heat the cream and the spices in a heavy bottomed pot until it's just about to boil, turn down the heat and leave it to cool. Write a page, chat to your best friend, go for a run. This is going to take more than 10 minutes so you might as well use your time and do something productive (sleep would be an option as well).
Upon your return you should find cream that doesn't look much different but that will carry hints of cinnamon and cardamom.
Turn to the blackberries and mash them. A potato masher or a fork will make your life a whole lot easier here :)
Mix the berries and the cooled cream, add the agave syrup, the salt and the rum. This is an ideal moment to use the fact that you don't know whether you might have to use some more syrup as an excuse to try some of it.
Now you either put everything into an ice-cream machine and let it works it's magic or you find a plastic container that will hold the mixture and put it into the freezer. If you're doing things by hand, give it half an hour in the freezer before you scrape down the crystals that will have formed on the sides. Put it back into the freezer for another half an hour and repeat the process. You'll want to do this a few more times, reducing the interval in between as you go along.
Since you haven't used a custard base for your ice-cream it will be slightly more solid when you take it out of the freezer but this is where the beauty of not using eggs comes in. Just leave it sitting outside for a couple of minutes or put it into the fridge for a bit before serving (and there's no need to be worried about what might be growing in there while it's sitting around).
Find a bowl, have some ice-cream (there's enough to share) and relax :)