Mess of Greens

full bellies | warm welcomes

Fruit

Blood Orange Cake, Dark Chocolate Ganache and Candied Oranges

by Leave a Comment

Confession: so, until a few weeks ago I’d never eaten a blood orange. I’d seen them in magazines, and decided they were gorgeous but probably not very yummy since I’ve never really been a fan of oranges anyway. But after tasting them, I’m eating my words these days (AND ALL the blood oranges I can get my hands on). In fact, I celebrated turning 35 by testing out a flavor combination that I was pretty sure would be dynamite… blood oranges and dark chocolate. OH y’all. It’s a grown-up cake for feeling like a real grown up. It takes a few steps but not nearly as many as a Momofuku layer cake and it’s absolutely worth it for a special occasion.

NOTES about this cake: Make sure to make the candied oranges the day before as they take a while to harden

Also, the ganache takes a little while to harden, so plan to put the cake in the fridge after frosting, or wait a few hours.

Lastly, this type of cake dries out quickly.. so if you don’t eat it immediately, make sure to wrap it up tightly and put it in the fridge.


Blood Orange Cake, Dark Chocolate Ganache and Candied Oranges
 
Save Print
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
 
Author:
Recipe type: Dessert
Serves: 1-3 Layer Cake
What You Need
  • CANDIED BLOOD ORANGES
  • 2 blood oranges, scrubbed and sliced into ¼" rounds with the peel on
  • 2 Cups Water
  • 1 Cup sugar
  • 2 Tablespoons Corn syrup
  • 2 tsp Bourbon
  • BLOOD ORANGE CHIFFON CAKE
  • 2 Cups cake flour (leveled)
  • 4 teaspoons baking powder
  • ½ teaspoon salt
  • 1½ Cups sugar
  • ½ Cups coconut oil, melted
  • 6 Large eggs, separated
  • ¼ teaspoon cream of tartar
  • Finely grated zest of 4 Blood Oranges
  • 1 Cup fresh orange juice (from the blood oranges. About 4-6 oranges, depending on size)
  • CHOCOLATE GANACHE
  • ¾ bag to 1 entire bag of dark chocolate chips (or 16 oz of other dark chocolate, rough chopped)
  • 1 16 oz can coconut cream, OR 2 Cans of Full Fat coconut milk, unshaken and unemulsified with the cream skimmed off the top
  • 1 Tablespoon blood orange zest
What to Do
  1. FOR the CANDIED BLOOD ORANGES
  2. Boil the water and add the sugar and corn syrup.
  3. Wisk the sugars in the water until dissolved.
  4. Add in the orange slices, not letting them touch one another.
  5. Let them simmer for one hour, and then remove from the water onto a rack. You can either wait 24 hours for them to cool and dry OR put them in a crock pot on low for 4 hours, then in the refrigerator for 1 hour. I imagine 100 degrees in an oven would do the same thing.
  6. FOR the BLOOD ORANGE CHIFFON CAKE
  7. Preheat oven to 325 degrees and oi/flour 3 8" cakepans or 1 10" cake pan.
  8. In a large bowl, whisk the flour, baking powder, salt, and 1 cup sugar together.
  9. Make a well in center of flour mixture.
  10. Add oil, egg yolks, orange zest and juice, and ¼ cup cold water; whisk batter until smooth.
  11. With an electric mixer on medium-high speed, whisk egg whites and cream of tartar until soft peaks form.
  12. Gradually add the remaining ½ cup sugar, 1 tablespoon at a time; continue to beat until stiff peaks form.
  13. Using a spatula, gently fold half of egg-white mixture into batter. Fold in remaining egg-white mixture just until combined.
  14. Pour equal amounts into each cake pan, and bake at 325 degrees for 35 mins or until the top is brown, the sides slightly pull away from the pan and a toothpick comes out clean.
  15. Let cool slightly.
  16. FOR the CHOCOLATE GANACHE
  17. Heat the coconut cream over medium-low heat until it steams.
  18. Add in the chocolate and zest and stir continuously until it has melted entirely and the combination turns a dark, creamy brown.
  19. Remove from heat.
  20. PUT IT TOGETHER
  21. Using a bread knife (or better yet, an electric knife) cut off the tops of each cake until they are entirely flat (it feels sad to loose this much of the cake, but it's how to make it look even).
  22. Spread a thin layer of ganache over the top of each layer and stack each one on top of the other.
  23. Spread a layer of ganache over the sides and top of the cake, let stand for 30 minutes to slightly harden. This will be your "crumb layer" which will serve to keep all the crumbs from mixing with the ganache.
  24. Once the ganache has hardened on the cake slightly, spread another layer on the top and sides of the cake.
  25. Garnish with the candied orange slices. You may serve warm, OR wait until the ganache hardens entirely.
  26. If you wait to eat it, make sure to wrap the cake tightly and put it in the refrigerator since this type of cake dries out quickly. It can also be wrapped tightly in saran wrap and frozen for over a month.

You can see here how the warm ganache seeped into the warm cake… heaven!

Watermelon Mint Sno-Cones

by 1 Comment

  So, it turns out today is National Watermelon Day! I had no idea when my little person and I picked our VERY FIRST homegrown watermelon from the garden yesterday afternoon.

There was just something extra sweet as we bit into the firm, pink flesh, knowing that it had come out of our soil. My plan was to have so many melons that I’d be able to drop them off on friends’ and neighbors’ doorsteps around the county, but most of the best ones were eaten by the bugs or suffered some other misfortune before they were ripe enough to pick. whomp whomp.

Also, ALLLLLL summer long the ONLY two things my uber pregnant self have craved have been ice water and ice cold watermelon. I’m guessing that I bought at least one melon a week for 3 months and nearly ate the whole thing every week BY MYSELF. But now I have MY OWN from MY Garden!

Then I got even greedier… I couldn’t STAND the thought of wasting all that sweet thin layer of fruit and juice that got thrown away with the rind after I’d scooped out everything I could get with a melon-baller. Solution: Homemade New Orleans Style Sno-cones. There’s really nothing that my family likes better in the summertime. We probably go to the sno-cone stand once a week around here.

It’s been that way since high school, when I spent nearly every summer night with a posse of friends standing around outside the local Sno-Biz waiting for the cute guys to finish work there so we could all go out night-swimming or to a late movie. Even now, when I taste a sno-cone I still remember how hot it was and how excited my 16 year old self was when one of those guys would pass me a free sno-cone. (obviously, they had a crush on me as big as the one I had on them, right? ha! unlikely…but 16 year old Biz dreamed.)

Anyway, to do this at home, all it takes is a little mint simple syrup, a lot of leftover watermelon juice, an ice cream  maker and YOWZA. (If I weren’t preggo you can BET YOUR BISCUITS that some tequila or vodka would find its way into one of these babies.)

Watermelon season is winding down, but this super simple recipe is well worth it with the dregs of that one sitting in your fridge right now! The hard part will be NOT eating the entire bowl full. (but it’s homemade and fresh, right, so what’s the harm?)

Watermelon Mint Sno-Cones
 
Save Print
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
 
Author:
Serves: 8
What You Need
  • 4 Cups watermelon juice, chilled
  • 1 Cup granulated sugar
  • 1 Cup water
  • Crushed leaves from 8 mint stalks (so, about ¾ Cup mint leaves)
  • 1 Lime, cut into wedges
What to Do
  1. FOR THE WATERMELON JUICE
  2. Take leftover watermelon juice after using a melon baller and the leftover flesh scooped from the rind and puree, then strain, or just puree'/strain watermelon chunks.
  3. Chill in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour if not already cold.
  4. FOR THE MINT SIMPLE SYRUP
  5. In a small saucepan, boil the water.
  6. When it is rolling, add in the sugar and turn to simmer until it has thickened slightly (2 minutes or so)
  7. Remove from heat and add the mint leaves to steep for 10 minutes.
  8. Strain the leaves from the syrup and store in a jar.
  9. Refrigerate until cool.
  10. FOR THE SNO-CONE
  11. In an ice cream maker, combine the 4 cups chilled watermelon juice and 1 cup of the simple syrup
  12. Freeze using your ice cream maker's specifications.
  13. It's ready when it is fully frozen but NOT lumpy-frozen. that's almost too hard.
  14. Serve with a large lime wedge squeezed over the top.

 

 

 

Fig & Blueberry Coffee Cake

by 1 Comment

So, this post is late as fig week has been over for awhile, but I can’t resist because this was the kind of cake that was super easy and so good that I kept sneaking back to slice just one more teeeeeeny sliver. But then I had slivered so much cake that there was only one full piece left, so my boys were pretty bent out of shape with me.

It’s also so simple that I after talking about the edits to the recipe that I’d made, I left baking in the hands of my honey and little dude. Brett doesn’t LOVE cooking (and I don’t think I’ve ever known him to bake ANYTHING) but Wagner does love being in the kitchen, so while I ran to the grocery store one weekend, they made this. I came home to a kitchen COVERED in flour and two worn out fellas. But y’all….usually it takes me way more than one try to get a recipe right, (especially baked stuff) but they NAILED it. Maybe I need to turn MoG over to my boys?

Anyway, for a (probably) first time baker and his toddler sous chef, this coffee cake was a hit. I LOVED it and thought it made the perfect just-sweet-enough coffee cake for midmorning (or afternoon…or after dinner…or instead of lunch) snack time. 😉 Let me know what you think!

BTW, This cake is based on one from Food & Wine but I replaced raspberries with local blueberries (since raspberries seem to like cooler weather than what we have in south MS) and lime zest/juice with orange. You could also probably sub lemon juice since lemons and blueberries go together like batman & robin.


Blueberry, Fig Coffee Cake
 
Save Print
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
 
Author:
Recipe type: Brunch, Dessert
Serves: 6-8
What You Need
  • ⅛ Cup flour, for dusting pan
  • ¼ Tablespoon butter, for dusting pan
  • 1½ cups granulated sugar
  • 3 large eggs
  • 1 stick unsalted butter, melted
  • Finely grated zest of 1large oranges or 3 mini ones
  • 1½ cups all-purpose flour
  • Juice of 1 small orange or ¼ large one
  • ½ pint blueberries
  • 4 figs, cut into eighths, or additional ½ pint blueberries
  • Confectioners' sugar, for dusting
What to Do
  1. Preheat the oven to 350.
  2. Butter a 9-inch springform pan and coat with flour to keep the batter from sticking.
  3. In a mixer fitted with the batter attachment, beat the sugar and eggs at high speed until fluffy, about 2 minutes.
  4. Beat in the butter and two-thirds of the zest.
  5. At low speed, alternately beat in the flour and orange juice until almost incorporated, then fold with a spatula until it's smooth.
  6. Scrape the batter into the prepared pan and smooth the surface.
  7. Gently press in the blueberries and figs.
  8. Bake the cake on the bottom third of the oven for 40ish minutes.
  9. Transfer to the upper third of the oven and continue baking for about 35 minutes more, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
  10. Run a thin knife around the edge and release the springform and place the cake on a rack to cool.
  11. When you're ready to serve, dust the cake with confectioners' sugar and sprinkle with the remaining zest, then cut into wedges.

 

burnt fig, burrata, fresh greens salad

by Leave a Comment

Well, y’all, if I could eat this salad every day for lunch, I probably would. It was creamy, and sweet, and tart…. why can’t we eat fresh figs year round? (well, I guess we could but they probably wouldn’t taste the same, right?)

Also, let me be clear, I don’t like to make salads at home. I always want WAY TOO many “toppings” and by the time I’ve cut it all up, or mixed up the dressings or roasted the almonds I’m too tired to eat it. This salad, that I modified from one I read about in Food & Wine though, was easy and SO fine. The freshness of the ingredients matters here, so you don’t need a ton of them to make something that will make you feel like you’re a Roman Goddess laying on a chaise lounge by a fountain eating the finest food.

A note on ingredients: now, I live in South Mississippi…and it’s safe to say that Burrata cheese isn’t really *easy* to find, and when you can find it, it’s kind of on the expensive side. It is Worth the expense? If you love creamy, fresh, mild mozzarella, then um, 100% Yes. However, down here no one seems to want it or want to pay for it, so I’ve noticed that the grocery store that carries it always has to mark it down a few days before its expiration date. Uh, NO PROBLEM for me as it doesn’t last longer than a day in my house anyway. ;)I can’t tell you which grovery store as you might come steal my stash, but safe to say, look for the bargains if $4.00 seems like a little too much to pay for cheese. Also, worst case scenario (which isn’t all that bad) use fresh mozzarella. The flavor is the similar though the texture is real different.


burnt fig, burrata
 
Save Print
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
 
Author:
Recipe type: Salad
Serves: 2
What You Need
  • 3 Cups mixed greens
  • ½ Cup Burrata (or more) broken apart
  • 10 fresh figs, halved
  • ½ Tablespoon butter
  • 3 Tablespoons granulated sugar
  • 3 Tablespoons olive oil
  • 2 Tablespoons fresh lemon juice
  • Kosher Salt and Fresh black pepper
What to Do
  1. Slice the figs and dip the inside into the sugar, covering the flat side.
  2. In a cast iron skillet, melt the butter until it sizzles.
  3. Place the figs cut side down into the butter and cook, without touching, until the sugar is dark brown and starts to smoke a little. The figs will be soft.
  4. While the figs are cooking, place/arrange the greens and burrata on plates.
  5. Mix the lemon juice and olive oil together.
  6. When the figs are ready, put them on top of the greens and drizzle with the olive oil/lemon juice dressing.
  7. Sprinkle with salt and fresh ground pepper to taste.
  8. Eat immediately

 

Roasted Fig and Whiskey Puree’

by Leave a Comment

So, let’s dive into fig week 2017, shall we? In my opinion, during the summer (and in some parts of the world, fall), there are two kinds of people…. those folks with a fig tree or two in their backyard, and those without. If you HAVE a fig tree, then you get gallons of figs to eat, make into preserves, and do just about whatever you want with them until your sated and maybe a little too full. If you don’t (like me), well, then you have to rely on the kindness of friends with fig trees or farmer’s stands to get your fig-fix. Here’s something to know about keeping them as long as possible.

Once you’ve picked or bought them, DO NOT WASH THEM. Put them in an open tupperware container with a paper towel on the bottom to wick away moisture, and leave them in the fridge. I’ve learned the hard way that if you leave figs on the counter then they melt into goo VERY VERY fast, so don’t make that mistake of your summertime fruit-gold.

But then, once you have them (or if you have a zillion pounds of them) what do you do? I’ve got lots of ideas here, but this morning my little dude craved pancakes, so I pulled out a recipe and went to town. But instead of basic syrup or  powdered sugar, we made a super quick and easy roasted fig and bourbon puree’ and drizzled the pancakes with honey. It was DIVINE…sweet, rich, and made silver dollar pancakes seem so fancy with minimal effort. My little person didn’t get the puree’ (even though all but the whiskey flavor had cooked out in the oven), but the honey and fresh figs were a HIT. If pancakes aren’t on deck for you, try this mixed into vanilla or plain greek yogurt, over ice cream, or just in spoonfuls. It’ll keep in your fridge for just under a week.


Roasted Fig and Whiskey Puree'
 
Save Print
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
 
Author:
Serves: 4-6
What You Need
  • 20 to 25 Fresh figs, washed & cut in half
  • 3 Tablespoons Unsalted butter
  • 3 Tablespoons Honey (local is always better!)
  • 2 tsp lemon zest
  • 1.5 tablespoons whiskey (I used bourbon)
What to Do
  1. Preheat your oven to 375.
  2. Slice your figs in half and place them in a roasting pan or glass baking dish, spreading them out evenly.
  3. In a small saucepan, melt the butter.
  4. Add in the Honey and cook until they've combined.
  5. Add the whisky into the hot honey/butter mixture.
  6. Pour it all over your figs and lightly roll them in the mixture so all the sides are covered.
  7. Roast the figs for about 15 minutes or until they are bubbly and very soft.
  8. Let cool for a few minutes and then puree' with an emulsion blender or regular blender.
  9. Serve on top of pancakes for a very grownup breakfast, over ice cream, mixed into yogurt with granola, or just eat it by the spoonful.
  10. Store in a small tupperware container or in a jar in the refridgerator for just under a week.

 

My mama loved figs.

by 1 Comment

I lost my mama two months ago today.

I haven’t been able to write much about her. Even thank you notes to all of the wonderful friends who shared their love, traveled to be with us, cooked us meals, sent flowers to surround us, helped us with her memorial service, or donated to her favorite charities in her honor have been so hard to write.

One night the week she died I wrote this on my facebook wall… I wanted to share it here so y’all could know even a tiny bit about my mama and how she influenced me (and shaped this blog).

I can’t express how much comfort it has brought me to know that so many of you knew and loved Mama. This week I’ve been a wreck and a mess…I lost my best friend, north star, compass.
Lots of people have shared with me how creativity was a defining characteristic of Mama. Make a beautiful, fascinating life-like insect out of seed pods, leaves, and twigs? Capture a moment in time through a portrait of your children in oil that you’ll treasure forever? Sew an ENTIRE set of bedding for her first grandson’s new room and daybed that fit like a glove and is more perfect than anything from a store? Make a dwarf pomegranate seed grow and finally twist itself up a thin wire trellis (AND still produce fruit!)? She did all of those things because her little hands and her genius mind could construct, stitch, paint, draw, write, design, grow, or arrange just about anything they wanted to as well as any master of any trade.
But the thing about her that people have remembered that she would–deep down–be most proud of, is that you noticed how sincerely and thoughtfully she considered other people and what they needed. My daddy and I were almost always half frustrated by my mama’s need to have everything “just-so.” My dad has always said our home has “those little touches that make a home a hospital” because mama always has kept it clean, straight, disinfected, and ready for the white-glove treatment at any and every moment. We had more silly harangues about whether or not various other things in my life have been up to snuff.
Even over this past year and a half, when she’s felt truly, horribly rotten, Mama got up and 98% of time, put on makeup and real clothes and fixed her hair, even just to sit on the couch, needlepoint, and have lunch with us. When musing on this on Tuesday, someone said of mama, “And that was NEVER vanity. It was sheer discipline and a sincere, deep consideration for others.” He was right. As a mama, as a friend, as a wife, and a human being in this world, my mama always put other people’s needs before her own. She wanted every person who came through her door to know they were special, important, valuable, and wanted to encourage them, celebrate them, listen to them. Everyone deserved her absolute best self, her highest effort. Inconveniencing someone else, asking for help, seeming down or disheartened (and in doing so, causing worry) just wasn’t something she was willing to do.
If you’ve seen her these past two years, knew she’d beaten cancer and then heard that she was suddenly gone, you might not understand how someone who “looked so great” and “always had a smile” could have been in such trouble… and the answer is that she considered you worth treating with care and love, and wanted you to feel hope and joy instead of something else. I can’t even imagine how hard that must have been for her, but I also know that a crazy internal strength and tenacity was what kept her going every day. I hope knowing that she cared for you and thought you deserved her very absolute best will make you smile. And then if she let her guard down even one 1/10 of an millimeter and shared a glimmer of how she might be actually doing with this crazy other disease that arose after the cancer, well, then that’s a sign she cared for you, too.
While these past two years have been the hardest of my mama’s life– she didn’t feel like painting, couldn’t garden, wasn’t able to do much toodeling around town–it was, selfishly, the very closest time together for me in our 34 years together. Just like all mothers and daughters there’s always been a little bit of “Why can’t you be JUST like me?– Wait, No! Be better, be more!” and “I want to be JUST like you! But also I really want to be myself which means the very opposite of everything you think you stand for!” But my fear of losing Mama brought me home, and we have been closer than ever, in proximity, but also in mind and spirit. Not only did I learn more about mothering from her example this year and a half, but I had a chance to be the kind of daughter I always wanted to be for her. It’s been a crazy gift. I wanted more time with her– so, so much more time– and I’m hurting now, but if there is a silver lining, it’s that now she’s whole, and has been healed and is probably out there digging in the dirt and smearing paint around as we speak just like she would want.
I don’t know that I’ll ever be even half of the mother my mama was-because 2/3 of the time I feel like a trainwreck-but I’m absolutely going to try. Her example is worth living up to and I can see it out there like a lighthouse in the fog. But right now there’s so much fog. When you tell me about what you remember of her, or when you see something in me that reminds you (even ever so faintly) of her, it will keep me going. Two days in and I can already tell you I’m going to need it.
We’re going to celebrate and remember Mama at St. John’s Episcopal Church on Saturday May 13th at 4 (Because she wouldn’t have wanted to interrupt the middle of anyone else’s Saturday plans but would have wanted to make it easy for friends from elsewhere to be with us and not miss work). If you are around and want to help us be joyful and find some peace, please join us…but if you can’t make it, then please just say a prayer and toast to creativity, strength, and caring for other people–and maybe that’ll bring even more of those things into the world.

I’m still feeling a lot of the things I wrote in this post two months ago, but I’m starting to have some peace. Mostly because I’m starting to find my way by getting back into doing the things she and I loved… one of those things was fresh figs. Last year I celebrated her cancer-free diagnosis with them because they were one of two foods she could eat the previous summer during chemo. Mess of Greens did a week of fig recipes, and this week since it’s fig season around these parts, I’ll post as many more good ones as I can come up with. If you make one, let me know!

Blueberry Cobbler with Sweet Cornmeal Crust

by 4 Comments

Well lovelies, things at Mess of Greens HQ has been a bit of a hot mess since we last visited… we moved into a new house, adjusted a toddler to the new house rules (living with us in his grandparents home for a year meant a rude awakening when there weren’t 4 adults around to persuade), found out we were expecting a little bundle of joy in early autumn, and lost my mama to an awful, rare lung disease

The thing is, I’ve got so much to tell you about my mama and how she shaped me and taught me, especially when it comes to warm welcomes and loving other people.

But I can’t bring myself to write about her just yet.

But I did feel a little more like myself and actually wanted to be playing around in my new gorgeous kitchen these past few weeks, finally, because, summer produce. Blueberries, watermelon, peaches… and then the corn! and the tomatoes! Good Lordy why do we even bother to eat food that we don’t know where it comes from? (Not because I’m against big agriculture or think that everyone should–or even can– homestead and garden, but because DAMN! Food that is picked and then eaten immediately and still has a little earth on it just tastes so much better. The Italians know what I’m talking about.

It’s been fun to take my little fella out into the world to the farmers’ markets, into our own garden, and out to neighbor’s houses to see where the food we eat comes from… today we made our second blueberry picking trip out to my aunt’s farm, and it was SO hot but just so wonderful. (a 7 months pregnant lady in 90 degree heat is a sight, let me tell you). Getting your fingers all purpley and letting the juice dribble down your chin while still filling up a bucketful to take home…isn’t that what summer’s supposed to be about?

And then, from some of the blueberries came a cobbler. Sure, I’ve made cobblers, crumbles, and crisps before (the EASIEST summer desserts) but not like this one…  a slightly sweet, wonderfully crunchy textured cornmeal crust really was something special.

Give it a go with whatever berries you can get your hands on (Though corn & blueberries really are a match made in heaven. Google it. I promise.) First, it’s easy. Second, it’s divine. and Third, do we need a third?


Blueberry Cobbler with Sweet Cornmeal Crust
 
Save Print
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
 
Author:
Cuisine: Dessert
Serves: 12
What You Need
  • FOR THE FILLING:
  • 5 cups fresh (or frozen, thawed) blueberries. Imperfect berries are just fine!
  • ⅔ cup sugar
  • Grated zest from 1 lemon
  • Fresh juice from 1 lemon
  • 1 tablespoon cornstarch
  • ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
  • FOR THE CRUST:
  • 1 Cup all-purpose flour
  • 1 Cup cornmeal mix
  • ¾ cup sugar
  • 1 Tablespoon brown sugar
  • 1 teaspoon kosher salt
  • 1 large egg
  • 2 teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 10 tablespoons chilled unsalted butter, diced into small cubes
  • Optional: ¼ cup fresh corn kernels
What to Do
  1. FOR THE FILLING:
  2. Toss the blueberries, sugar, lemon zest, lemon juice, cornstarch, and salt into a mixing bowl and let sit for up to 2 hours. The longer the fruit sits the more juice will be released. Reserve it all and pour it into 1 large shall aking dish (2 quarts) or 2 smaller ones.
  3. FOR THE CRUST:
  4. Preheat oven to 360°.
  5. Combine flour, cornmeal, sugar, and salt in a medium bowl.
  6. Using your hands, add the butter and work into the dry ingredients until all of the dry ingredients have mixed together and are wet (nothing should be dry at the bottom of the bowl). You'll have little peas or balls of dough.
  7. The mixture should stick together when you smush it.
  8. If using, add corn and toss to evenly distribute.
  9. Taking some of the dough your hands, flatten the little balls and drop it over the top of the berry filling.
  10. Continue to do this until all the dough has been used or all/the majority of the filling has been covered.
  11. You will likely have extra dough... I prefer that to less so use as much or as little as you like.
  12. Bake crisp until topping is golden brown and the berries are bubbly and thickening, about 40-55 minutes.
  13. Let cook slightly (the berries will thicken more as it cools), and serve with vanilla ice cream.

 

 

 

 

Spiced Persimmon Pancakes

by 2 Comments

My little person has started negotiating. Anytime he wants something, but thinks we’ll say no, he’ll say, “Mama, let’s make a deal.” For instance, “Mama, let’s make a deal. In the morning, let’s make pancakes.” He hasn’t quite got the concept down, because there’s never a second side to the deal. Like, “If you make pancakes, I’ll let you sleep all night because I’ll stay in my own bed.” or “I won’t fight you at bath time about washing my hair.” or “You won’t have to sing every sweet song ever written until I fall totally asleep.” There’s none of that. Just the first part of the deal…the part that works out for him.

Anyway, he woke up one morning asking to make a deal for pancakes. He won, but I also snuck in a bit of extra goodness by making our standard buttermilk pancake recipe and jazzing it up with persimmon puree. And they were DELICIOUS and tasted like the holidays. Forget pumpkin spice…persimmons are where the fall and winter flavor is….

Read More »

‘Simmon Pudding with Bourbon Whipped Cream

by 3 Comments

img_4561

Oh bring us some ‘simmon puddin’

Oh bring us some ‘simmon puddin’

Oh bring us some ‘simmon puddin’

and bring it right now!

Now that I’ve discovered the incredible flavor that is wild persimmons,

That’s how I imagine that this Christmas carol would go if it had been written in the south. img_4562

My mama and I made some plum (figgy) pudding a couple of years ago and it was such a fun, nostagic project that had plans to make it every Christmas from then on, but honestly, I wasn’t a huge fan of how it tasted. But this, y’all. Oh this. It turns out that European American settlers made this pudding all winter with the tiny squishy persimmons that grew wild (and that Native Americans had been gathering and eating all along) and, in my opinion, it’s SO MUCH more divine than the one they make across the pond. I tampered a teeny bit with a Saveur recipe and added some bourbon whipped cream, and well… I’d say it’s a holiday dessert MUST MAKE. Plus, although it takes a little time to cook, it is EEEEAAASSSY.

Note: If you don’t relish the job of foraging and then scooping out 2 cups worth of wild persimmon pulp, you can cheat and use store bought persimmons. I won’t tell.

Oh bring us some 'simmon pudding
 
Save Print
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
 
Author:
Serves: 1 9"x13" pan
What You Need
  • FOR THE PUDDING:
  • Pulp from enough ripe persimmons to make 2 cups (about 5 hachiyas or Fuyu, OR about 3 pounds of wild very smushy ripe persimmons)
  • 2 cups sugar
  • 2 eggs, beaten
  • 1 1⁄2 cups buttermilk
  • 1 tsp. baking soda
  • 1 1⁄2 cups all purpose flour
  • 1 tsp. baking powder
  • 1⁄2 tsp. cinnamon
  • ½ tsp nutmeg
  • Pinch salt
  • 1⁄4 cup heavy cream
  • 4 tbsp. butter, melted
  • FOR THE BOURBON WHIPPED CREAM
  • 1 Cup whipping cream
  • 3 Tablespoons powdered sugar
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
  • 1 teaspoon bourbon
What to Do
  1. Preheat your oven to 350°. Place a large roasting pan filled with water ½ way or other way to create a water bath into the oven to warm. (Using a water bath will keep the center of the pudding moist. You can also use a traditional plum pudding mold that is then steamed...google that if you want to know more!)
  2. After you've gotten the fleshy pulp from the persimmons (if you're using wild, you'll need to skin them and also strain the pulp for the large seeds) add it and sugar into a large bowl.
  3. Beat in the eggs.
  4. Add in the buttermilk and baking soda into a separate medium bowl, and stir. Add to pulp, and mix well.
  5. Sift together flour, baking powder, cinnamon, and salt into the medium bowl (i like to reuse bowls when I can). Slowly add the flour mixture to the pulp, stirring until it's totally and thoroughly combined.
  6. Add heavy cream, and mix.
  7. Grease a 9'' X 13'' baking dish with a small amount of the melted butter
  8. Stir remaining butter into batter.
  9. Pour batter into dish.
  10. Place the baking dish into the water bath that's been warming in the oven, bake until dark brown and toothpick inserted in center comes out clean, about 1 hour, 20 minutes. OR bake according to your traditional plum pudding mold directions.
  11. Set aside to cool. Serve with bourbon whipped cream. (recipe below)
  12. FOR THE WHIPPED CREAM:
  13. In a COLD bowl and with a COLD whisk implement on your mixer (or your hand held emulsion blender) mix the cream, extract, bourbon, and sugar until frothy and until it has peaks. If you over mix it will turn into butter.

img_4565

Wild Persimmon & Bourbon Breakfast Bread

by 3 Comments

img_4379
Wild Persimmons: Bourbon Breakfast Bread
 
Save Print
Prep time
Cook time
Total time
 
The most time consuming part of this process is getting the persimmon pulp, but I assure you, the flavor is like NOTHING else and it's even more exciting because it grows wild and is connected to native peoples and early european settlers.
Author:
Recipe type: Breakfast or Dessert
Serves: 4 loaves
What You Need
  • FOR THE BREAD:
  • 2 cups sifted cake flour
  • ½ teaspoons salt
  • 2 teaspoon baking soda
  • ½ teaspoon ground nutmeg
  • ½ teaspoon ground cinnamon
  • 2 cups sugar
  • ½ cup melted unsalted butter or vegetable oil
  • 2 large eggs, at room temperature, lightly beaten
  • 1 Tablespoon Bourbon
  • 1 teaspoon vanilla
  • 2 cups persimmon puree (about 3 cups of wild persimmons)
  • FOR THE FROSTING:
  • 1 cup unsalted butter, softened
  • 18 oz package cream cheese
  • 2½ teaspoons vanilla extract
  • 1 tsp bourbon
  • 4 to 5 cups confectioners’ sugar
What to Do
  1. FOR THE BREAD:
  2. First things first: you have to get the persimmon puree'. A note about wild persimmons... you know they're ripe if they've fallen off the tree or are SUPER wrinkly and soft... like a deflated helium balloon. Once they're at that stage, and you've got a food mill, the you can use it to separate the skin and the seeds from the pulp. If not, then peel the skin away from the pulp and squeeze it into a wire strainer over a bowl. Using the back of a spoon, push the pulp through the strainer and into the bowl, leaving the large seeds. The pulp can be frozen for use later.
  3. Preheat your oven to 350 degrees.
  4. Prepare your bread or cake pans by coating the insides with butter and lightly flouring the inside.
  5. Mix all of the dry ingredients/spices except the sugar (flour, baking powder, soda, salt, nutmeg, cinnamon) together in a separate medium sized bowl. You may wish to sift this so they are combined consistently.
  6. Then, in a large mixing bowl, combine the puree', the butter or oil, and the sugar until it is entirely incorporated.
  7. Mix in the eggs, the vanilla, and the bourbon.
  8. Cup by cup, mix in the dry ingredients into the puree' mixture. Fold in until just mixed together.
  9. Pour the batter into 2-8" round cake pans, or 2- 9" bread pans, or 4-5" bread pans and bake until a toothpick can be inserted and comes out clean. (somewhere about 20-30 minutes depending on the size of your pan).
  10. FOR THE FROSTING:
  11. Using an electric mixer with the paddle attachment, beat the butter on medium speed until its all creamy.
  12. Add cream cheese and vanilla and bourbon, and beat until it's totally incorporated.
  13. Gradually increase the speed and beat until the cheese and butter mixture fluffy, scraping down the sides of bowl if you need to.
  14. Add in the powdered sugar one cup at a time, scraping down if you need to until everything is fully incorporated.
  15. PUTTING IT TOGETHER:
  16. Once the cake has cooled, frost it, slice it and serve it with a cup of coffee. it is even good at room temperature or straight from the fridge.

How perfect are persimmons? The gorgeous, peachy-oranged fleshed fruit that ripen into wrinkly, sweet pulp are not only the most lovely subjects for still life paintings ever, but also have been used in foods from puddings to beer for generations (read more about its history at American Food Roots). Until my friend Joseph brought me some that he’d found in the woods I’d never tried one and didn’t know that they’d played a large role in the diets of native people in our part of the world AND my southern ancestors. But now I know why.

When I saw the perfect little rosy “sugar plums” I couldn’t resist biting into one….but boy did I regret it. The skin of wild persimmons, dispyros virginiania (small, peachy fruit with smooth skin that’s a bit smaller than a golf ball and has several large, hard seeds) is VERY, VERY bitter and made my mouth feel like I’d covered it in a dry, awful tasting powder. But the inside flesh was soft, very sweet, and super fragrant.

In fact, when I just got a taste of the flesh I was in love. It was divine! And so different! Eventually I’d like to make a beer or vinegar using this lovely little fruit, but to start, I made something I felt pretty comfortable with… persimmon bread loosely based on James Beard’s version but with the added ah-mazingness that is cream cheese buttercream. I also made another batch and shaped it into a cake, which was brown like pumpernickle bread but was something like carrot cake. It really was PERFECT for breakfast, and super easy. If you’ve got folks staying over for Thanksgiving, then this is a nice change from the ubiquitous holiday sweet rolls for breakfast, especially since it makes use of local wild fruit you can find in the woods AND harkens back to the earliest settler’s food.

…

Read More »