Oh, these are very easy to make.  Very.

blueberry raspberry muffins (from the Greenwood Mountain Inn in Hebron Maine):

2 1/2 cups flour
1 cup sugar
2 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1 stick unsalted butter, melted
2 eggs
1 cup milk
lemon zest from about a half lemon
1 cup fresh (or frozen but not thawed) blueberries
1/2 cup fresh raspberries (I smashed mine up – pureed with a fork – to spread the raspberry flavor throughout the batter)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt.  Set aside.

Combine the melted butter, eggs, milk and zest and then mix into the dry mixture by hand (wooden spoon or fork).  Mix until just incorporated and try not to over-mix.

Smash the raspberries if you feel like it.  I like that flavor throughout – or smash half and leave some whole.  Anyway, fold in the berries and bake for about 22-26 minutes.  Just check often – with a toothpick and try not to over-bake.  You want these to be moist and tasty!

Sit back and enjoy-

This serves around 4 people -

red berry soup (from Seasonal Fruit Desserts by Deborah Madison):

soup-

3 cups red raspberries or mixed raspberries, red currants and strawberries
2 tablespoons sugar
1/2 cup water
few drops of lemon juice or rose water
pinch kosher salt

the fruit-

4 peaches or nectarines, white and/or yellow
1 scant cup mixed berries such as blackberries, golden or red raspberries, and currants

garnish-

2 rose geranium leaves with their blossoms, lavender springs, or sprigs of currents (or just serve as is.

For the soup – place the berries in a small pan with the sugar and a half cup water. Bring to a boil, then simmer for about 90 seconds.  While it simmers, break up the fruit with a masher or pestle.

Turn off the heat and let stand for about 5 minutes and then pour through a sieve.  Using a rubber spatuala, squish out as much juice as possible into a bowl.  You should have about 1 1/4 cups of liquid.

Let cool, then stir in the rose water or lemon juice – and add more to taste if desired.  Add a pinch of kosher salt to taste.  Cover and refrigerate.

To peel the peaches- prepare an ice bath.  Bring a pot of water to boil.  Dip the peaches into the water for 5-7 seconds – then quickly remove them with a slotted spoon and pop into the ice bath to stop the cooking.  Slip off the skins or refrigerate the fruit with the skins intact until needed (if serving later).

To serve, divide the soup into shallow bowls.  Slice the peeled peaches and nectarines and divide among the bowls.  Place the blackberries, raspberries and currents in the bowls too.  Garnish with what you might have available from above.

Add a dollop of Greek yogurt, creme fraiche, ice cream, sorbet – or just serve as is

Enjoy-

brownie pudding (from Ina Gartens Back to Basics – the only change I made was the addition of a little kosher salt):

1/2 pound (2 sticks) unsalted butter, plus little extra for buttering the dish
4 extra large eggs, room temp
2 cups sugar
3/4 cup good quality cocoa powder
1/2 cup all purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
seeds from one vanilla bean (scraped)  look at the fruit soup post for instructions and photos to scrape seeds

Preheat oven to 325 degrees.  Lightly butter a 2 quart oval baking dish (9×12x2 inch).

Melt the 2 sticks of butter and set aside to cool a bit.

With the paddle attachment of your mixer, beat the eggs and sugar on medium high speed for about 5 -7 minutes until it becomes very thick and light yellow.  While beating, whisk together the cocoa powder, flour and salt and set aside.

Reduce the speed to low (once the eggs are thick and light yellow) and add the vanilla seeds and the dry ingredients – mix until JUST combined.  With the mixer still on low, add the melted (and cooled) butter and again, mix until just incorporated.

Pour the brownie mixture into the prepared pan and place it in a larger baking pan or baking sheet.  Fill a pitcher with hot tap water -and carefully pour the water into the baking pan (do this in the oven, on the rack it is easier) so that it come about 1/2 way up the sides of the brownie dish.  This is called a bain marie.

Bake for 55 m to an hour.  A cake tester inserted 2 inches from the side will come out 3/4’s clean.  The center will seem very under-baked but that’s what makes this a brownie pudding!

Cool and serve with vanilla ice cream, whipped cream, chocolate chip ice cream, or sorbet.  Have some fun and caramelize some bananas too!

Enjoy -

daryel’s white chocolate, mac nut, coconut, tart cherry or cranberry cookies (adapted tiniest bit from Daryel Duhaime’s recipe that he serves at the Greenwood Mountain Inn in Hebron, Maine):

2 3/4 c flour
1 cup sugar
1 cup brown sugar
1 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon kosher salt
2 sticks butter, room temp (Daryel uses half margarine, half butter)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 1/2 cups white chocolate chips (please, good quality), or chopped white chocolate
3/4 cup dried cranberries (I used dried tart cherries, dried blueberries a good idea too!)
3/4 – 1 cup crushed macadamia nuts (toasted first)
3/4 cup shredded coconut

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Toast your macadamia nuts.  Place on foil or a sheet pan and bake for 5-7 minutes till fragrant and slightly golden.  Let cool and crush.  (Not sure Daryel toasts his – but doing this will bring out the flavor of the nut even more.)

Whisk together the flour, baking soda, and salt and set aside.

Now, Rob tells me Daryel does this all by hand – and I do think it makes for a nice dense cookie.  But I have a bum shoulder and continued vertigo – so sometimes ease is good for me.  So do what you want here.

By hand, you can mix the butter, sugars, vanilla, and eggs in a large bowl.  Alternately, you can beat the butter and sugars with the paddle attachment – then add the vanilla and eggs and scrape and mix again.

Add the flour mixing by hand – you can do this with your hands (clean hands) and mix until just incorporated.  Or, on lowest speed of the mixer, add the dry ingredients and again, mix until just incorporated.  Scrape.

Remove from mixer and now – yes, by hand – mix in all the mix ins…the toasted nuts, the white chips (or chopped white chocolate – I did a little bit of both), the coconut and the cranberries or tart cherries.  I love cherries so I substituted them for cranberries. You could even use dried blueberries.

Daryel places the dough in the fridge for 15 minutes to rest.  Then rolls into balls and bakes for a bout 13 minutes (but check often and before).  Rob does not refrigerate the dough – he simply rests it on the counter and proceeds to bake.  I did put the dough in the frige and I used my ice cream scoop to scoop out nice round cookies.  Anything really goes here  Experiment.

As I said bake for about 12-14 minutes.  Rotate your pans, if you have a lot of pans in the oven, it may take longer.  Keep an eye out!  Do not over-bake.

Lastly, Daryel rolls remaining leftover dough into balls and freezes them for easy service on the fly.  I tend to make frozen logs of dough (as seen in the oatmeal cookie post – look at the bottom of the post for directions and photos) and then slice and bake as needed.  Again – both work.

You can let cookies cool on counter – and serve some happiness up!

Enjoy-

chocolate clouds (adapted from Maida Heatters Brand New Book of Great Cookies):

6 oz semisweet chocolate
1/3 cup ground almonds or 2/3’s cup chopped toasted walnuts or almonds or pecans
1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips
2 large egg whites
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
1 teaspoon lemon juice or 1/2 teaspoon cider vinegar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Line sheet-pans with parchment.

Chop the chocolate and place in a metal bowl over barely simmering water  (an inch or so).  Melt the chocolate stirring occasionally.  Once melted remove from heat and let cool a bit.

If using whole nuts – chop coarsely and toast in 350 degree oven for 6-9 minutes.  Until fragrent and then set aside to cool.

With whisk attachment or with hand held beaters, beat the whites on medium speed – with the salt until they barely hold a soft mound.  Then slowly add the sugar – slowly slowly – and about half way through (adding the sugar) add the vanilla and the cider vinegar (or lemon juice).   Continue to add the sugar, and raise the speed to medium high.  Then finally raise speed to high and beat whites until they form hard peaks or firm points when the beaters are raised.

Remove bowl from mixer and add the cooled melted chocolate to the whites by folding gently.  Don’t over fold – and you can leave some streaks in the batter.  Gently fold in either the ground almonds or the chopped nuts, and the chocolate chips.

Place by rounded teaspoons onto the cookie sheet and bake for about 10 minutes – or a little less.  Remember to check a bit before as you don’t want to over bake these.  They should look firm on the outside but feel a bit soft on the inside -

Let cool on sheet pan.  Store in an airtight container (they will get even softer in the container – great for ice cream mix ins later in the week!)

Enjoy -

While this bakes, the peaches sink to the bottom making a soft moist peach-like base.

peach cake (from the Hyde Park bar and Grill in Austin from BonAppetit readers favorites):

1 3/4 cups plus 2 tablespoons all purpose flour
2 1/4 teaspoons baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, room temp
1 3/4 cups sugar
1 1/2 tablespoons vanilla extract
2 large eggs
3/4 cup buttermilk

4 cups peeled sliced peaches (from about 3 pounds)

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Lightly butter a 13×9x2 inch glass baking dish.

Whisk together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.

With the paddle attachment, beat the butter and sugar until smooth – and a little lighter.  About 3-4 minutes.  Add the eggs one at a time on medium speed, and then the vanilla.

Scrape and mix again.

On the lowest speed, add 1/3 of the flour mixture, followed by 1/2 of the buttermilk, repeat and finish with the flour.  Scrape and mix again – until all comes together.

Pour the batter into the prepared dish.  Spread with a spoon or palette knife.

Arrange peaches over the batter – it is OK if some overlap.

Spray or lightly butter a piece of tin foil. and cover the cake with the foil (butter side down)  - and seal tightly.  Bake for 45 minutes covered.

Remove the foil carefully, then bake another 40 minutes or so until the top is a nice golden brown and the edges are crusty.  A toothpick should come out just barely clean.

Cool for about an hour – then serve warm with whipped cream.  Yum.

Enjoy-

pomegranate grapefruit sorbet (adapted from Recipe of the Week-Ice Cream by Sally Sampson):

3 cups pomegranate juice
1 cup freshly squeezed grapefruit juice (don’t bother if using from a carton), strained
1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 tablespoon lime juice
pinch kosher salt

Mix together the pomegranate juice, grapefruit juice , sugar, lemon, and lime juice.

Heat until sugar has melted.  You do not need to boil.

Refrigerate until cold – several hours or overnight.

Season with a pinch (or 2) of kosher salt  - taste it.

Run in your ice cream machine.

Enjoy!

Feel free to fiddle with your fruits.  Also, I had left over streusal (that keeps well in the freezer for any time I want a little crisp.)

Serves from 8-12.

summer fruit cobbler (slightly adapted from Baking For All Occasions by Flo Braker):

You’ll need a 13×9x 2 inch baking dish – or around that.  If you have smaller dishes, you can make two!

streusal-

1 1/4 cups old fashioned rolled oats
1 cup all purpose flour
1 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
5 oz (1 1/4 sticks) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4 inch slices
1 teaspoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
3/4 teaspoon kosher salt

fruit filling- (9-10 cups total)

4 cups mixed berries such as blueberries, blackberries, boysenberries , raspberries (you pick what you like to equal about 3-4 cups)
1 cup sweet cherries, stemmed, pitted and halved
2 medium firm but ripe peach, peeled, halved, pitted and sliced
1 each small firm but ripe nectarine, pluot, apricot and plum, halved, pitted and sliced
2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 – 1/3 cup sugar  (if your fruits are very sweet, go with a little less, if not, go with a little more)
3 tablespoons all purpose flour

whipped topping-(double this if you think your guests or family will eat a lot of it.  I find people take the smallest spoonfuls.)

1 cup cold heavy cream
1/4 cup creme fraiche
1 tablespoon sugar

Streusal- In a large bowl, combine the oats, flour, sugar, butter, baking powder, cinnamon and salt.  Using your fingers mix and squish this until it resembles coarse sand and kind of comes together as a dough a bit if you squeeze it.  The streusal can be stored at room temp for 1-2 hours.  For longer storage, place in fridge for up to 5 days.  You an also freeze the streusal to keep on hand for the next time you want a crumble fast.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.  Place rack in center of the oven.

Combine all the prepped fruits in a large bowl.  In a small bowl, stir together the lemon juice and vanilla.  Sprinkle this mixture over the fruit.  Add the sugar and pinch of salt to the fruits and and gently toss with your hands to coat evenly.  Sprinkle the flour over the fruit and again, toss gently.

Pour the fruits into the gratin dish and then scatter the streusal on top of the fruits.  Do not press down – just try to evenly top the fruit. (Although a lot of topping is good, I wanted this to be very fruity – so I didn’t use all of the streusal.  So up to you.  I saved the extra in the freezer for strawberry crumble on the fly.)

Bake the crumble until the fruit is soft and bubbling – and the topping is lightly browned.  Probably take about 30-40 minutes or so although I forgot to time this.  So check at 30 and continue to bake if not yet golden and bubbly. Let cool on a wire rack.  Serve warm, or re-heat later, or serve at room temp.  Cold is good too actually!

Whipped cream/creme fraiche – whisk together the cream, creme fraiche and sugar with hand held beaters or in your electric mixer until it is very softly whipped.  Cover and refrigerate until service.  Ice cream or plain whipped cream is great too (freshly whipped please!)

Store in refrigerator – in an airtight container.  They will keep for about a week – although after about 3 days will loose their crispy crunch (the crust).

lemony lime bars (from Alice Medrich’s Pure Dessert):

crust-

8 tablespoons (1 stick) unsalted butter, melted
1/4 cup sugar
3/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1 cup (4.5 ounces) all purpose flour

topping-

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons sugar
3 tablespoons all purpose flour
3 large eggs
1 1/2 teaspoons freshly grated lime or lemon zest (wash and dry the fruit first), I used lime zest
1/2 cup strained fresh lime or lemon juice, I used 3 oz lime juice and 1 oz lemon juice but you can do all lemon or lime whatever you want
2 pinches kosher salt
powdered sugar for dusting

Preheat oven to 350 degrees and place rack in lower third of oven.  Line the bottom of an 8 inch pan with tin foil.  (If you turn your pan upside down – press the foil over it to make the square shape – then flip pan over and gently press the shaped foil in it. Look at baking tips as well.)  You want enough of a foil overhang to be able to pull the foil (and bars) out easily.

Crust – In a medium bowl, combine the melted butter with the sugar, vanilla and salt.  Add the flour and mix until just incorporated.  Press the dough evenly onto the bottom of the pan.  Bake for 30-35 minutes until the crust is nicely browned at the edges and golden in the center.

Make the topping while the crust is baking.  Stir together the sugar, flour and salt in a large bowl until well mixed.  Whisk in the eggs and mix well.  Stir in the lemon or lime zest and juice as well.

When the crust is ready, slide the rack out and pour the filling into the pan – onto the hot crust.  Reduce the oven temp to 300 degrees  and bake for 20-25 minutes.   You want the topping to be set – no jiggles in the center when the pan is tapped.

Let cool on rack in pan.  Once cool – lift foil liner (and giant lemon square) and transfer to cutting board.  If the top has a thin layer of moisture on it, you can gently remove with a paper towel by gently placing it on top to blot.  Use a long sharp knife to cut the bars.  Sift powdered sugar on top if desired.  Again, store in refrigerator in an airtight container.  Enjoy-

Serves around 6-8.

nectarine, cherry, and raspberry crisp (adapted from Baking Unplugged by Nicole Rees):

4 1/2 cups pitted, sliced nectarines (about 3-4 large)
3 cups raspberries
1 1/2 cup pitted, halved cherries
1/2 cup sugar (more or less to taste)
1 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/4 teaspoon ground allspice
1/4 teaspoon ground cardamom
pinch kosher salt

topping-
1 cup all purpose flour
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
1/3 cup old fashioned oats
1/3 teaspoon kosher salt
1/4 plus 3 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Place rack in center of oven.  Butter a 9 inch square baking dish.

Combine the fruits with the cornstarch, allspice, cardamom and pinch of salt in a medium bowl.  Pour into prepped pan.

In a smaller bowl, whisk together the flour, brown sugar, oats and salt.  Add the melted butter and stir to combine.

Sprinkle the topping over the fruit and bake for about 35-45 minutes.  I forgot to time this – so keep cooking until the fruit juices bubble and the top to turn a nice golden brown.  Enjoy-