All Things Southern

Open Faced and Covered Peach Mini-Pies

Last week I headed home to spend some time with my family before the craziness of the market season took over for the rest of the summer. I love going home for several reasons. One reason is to hang out with my family. Second reason is to ride roller coasters with my dad. Third reason is Chick-fil-a. Fourth reason is peaches. I can go on and on and on.

Living in Louisiana, we always frequent farm stands that were dotted along the backroads and highways. One stand we hit always had Ruston Peaches from Mitcham Farms. Mitcham Farms is the state's largest peach orchard in Louisiana. Biting in to one of these peaches was heavenly. The taste was amazing and the peach was very juicy that you needed several napkins. It was definitely something to savor. 

Peaches are grown in zones 4-8 here in the United States and are usually available mid-June to mid-July. Having a tree-ripened peach is the best and I am always disappointed when I pick up peaches in a local grocery store. They look good, they smell good, but the taste is nasty. For this reason alone, I stopped wasting money on buying peaches here in New England. So you can believe it when I say, I was super happy about bringing back a case of peaches from South Carolina. Before I left South Carolina, I hit a local farmers market held in the Market Common. I picked up some peaches from a farmer and when I got back to the family, we all bit into one and the first words uttered were "Oh my, that is SO good!" My sister stated she needed to hit a stand on the way out of town to get some to take back to Ohio. We stopped along Route 501 with the intention of getting a few more, well I grabbed a case instead along with some plums. (This is another reason why I love going home).

So I ate some peaches and brought some peaches back for my husband and decided to make some peach pies for a local market.  They got rave reviews. Here's a recipe for Peach pie. I recommend using tree-ripened, Southern peaches but if you can't get them, local peaches grown here by a farmer would be the next best option. If you have to, you can use frozen peaches or canned peaches. I would shy away from purchasing peaches at a local grocery store UNLESS you have had them and know that they are good.  Enjoy.

Ingredients: 1 c sugar, 1/4 c flour, 1/4 tsp cinnamon*, 1 tsp lemon juice, 2 TBSP butter, pie crust of your choice (we use my granddaddy's pie crust recipe for all our pies), 5 c sliced fresh peaches*

Instructions: 1. Preheat oven to 425F.   2. Peel and slice peaches. Make sure not to have any of the pit in your slices. 3. In a bowl, add peaches then add other ingredients except the butter. 4. Pour peach mixture into a prepared pie plate and dot with butter. Cover with an additional second layer of crust or leave open. 5. Bake for 35 to 45 minutes.

*I usually use a tad bit more cinnamon then what is listed above.
*Overripe peaches are best for pies. Mixture will be soupy. You can substitute peaches for apricots.

Strawberry Sorbet

Summertime is my favorite time of the year. I grew up in Louisiana so I enjoy the hot, humid weather. I love the smell of fresh cut grass, the hum of  the insects jumping from one flower to another in the garden, fresh produce at the local farmers markets or out of my garden, the smell of the ocean in the air, the flight of a butterfly, and of course, berries. I love all types of berries. Summertime for me starts with arrival of strawberries and continues on through raspberries, cherries, blackberries, and blueberry seasons.

Living in Louisiana, when it was hot or even if it wasn't, my favorite treat was a Sno-ball or as non-Southerners would call, a Snowcone. We're not talking a Hawaiian Ice or a snowball off an ice cream truck that is so hard it breaks your teeth. We are talking about a New Orleans Style Sno-Ball. Large blocks of ice are shaved on a machine called the Southern New Orleans snow maker and then stuffed in a Styrofoam cup and a funnel is used to make the top of it. The ice is a perfect consistency between chunky ice and very soft ice. The Hansen family from New Orleans invented this machine and if you travel to New Orleans, you can stop in at their shop, Hansen's Sno-Bliz Sweet Shop, located in the 4800 block of Tchoupitoulas. Syrup, not just water and sugar mixed, is then added to the top of the cone. The syrup is boiled and consists of pure cane sugar, water, and flavoring. My favorite Sno-ball combination was Cherry, Coconut, and Blue Raspberry. The sno-ball was a very patriotic creation. Some other choices that are added to sno-balls, besides syrup, are ice cream, cream, or chocolate. I wasn't really big on adding cream to my sno-ball but friends of mine where.  I mentioned to my husband about maybe doing a Sno-ball machine during my summer markets and he, being a Northerner, thinks that it really wouldn't take off. Maybe I'll get the machine just for me so that I can have sno-balls whenever I want instead of when I head south for a visit.

A few posts this month have been centered around Strawberries. Since I can't have a sno-ball, I figured I would go to the next best thing, sorbet. I love sorbet over sherbet. Whole Fruit has some amazing sorbets and I recently tried some sorbets from a company called Ciao Bella. I love the Lemon Zest and the Blood Orange. They have many more flavors and I just hope my local store will start to carry them.  Sometimes I'll make a fruit Sorbet. It can be done using an ice cream machine or not and is fairly simple and easy to do.

Sorbet became very popular in the 19th and 20th centuries as a palate cleaner between meals. It's usually referred to as Intermezzo, which translates into "in between the work." Sorbets  are usually known as ice and have a softer consistency than sherbets, which contain milk and sometimes eggs. Fruit sorbets usually consists of 3 ingredients: water, sugar, and fruit. Other ingredients can be added based on the type of sorbet you want.

Here's a recipe for Strawberry Sorbet. Enjoy.

Ingredients: 1/3 c water, 1/3 cup sugar, 2.5 c or 1 pound of fresh/frozen strawberries*, 1 TBSP lemon juice.

Instructions: (1) Place sugar and water in a small saucepan and over low heat, stir until the sugar is completely dissolved. Boil the mixture for one minute then remove from the heat. Pour sugar syrup into a heatproof container and place in fridge until completely chilled.* (2) Process strawberries in a food processor until pureed. Transfer puree to a large bowl and add the lemon juice and place bowl in the fridge until thoroughly chilled. (3) Once syrup and strawberry puree are completely chilled, combine simple syrup with the strawberries. Transfer to a chilled container of an ice cream machine* and process according to the manufacturer's instructions. Once made, transfer sorbet to a chilled container and store in the freezer.

*Local strawberries at farmers markets are the best since they have flavor and sweetness. If you can't obtain fresh, local strawberries, use frozen ones. Usually the strawberries at a grocery store lack flavor and sweetness though they look all read and shinny.
*If you taste the sorbet after freezing and the amount of sugar isn't right, adjust the level of sugar syrup. Add some syrup if there is too little sugar in the sorbet or add water if there is too much sugar in the sorbet. Refreeze the sorbet.
*Since it takes time to make the syrup, make a large quantity and store in the fridge so you have it ready to go when you want to make more sorbet.
*If you don't have a machine, pour mixture into a stainless steel pan (8", 9"...). The metal will help the sorbet to freeze faster. You can use a glass pan if you want it will just take longer. Cover the sorbet with plastic wrap and place in freezer. After 3-4 hours, remove sorbet from freezer and let it stand at room temperature until partially thawed. Transfer partially thawed sorbet to a food processor and process to break up large ice crystals. This gives the sorbet a fluffy texture. Place sorbet back in the pan and refreeze for 3 hours or up to several days.

Brown Sugar & Cinnamon Cream Cheese Popovers

Photo taken from Doughmesstic.com

I love brown sugar and I love cinnamon. I loved the Cinnamon poptarts growing up and could really care less about the other flavors. Since the school year is coming to a close, I will have more time to make different breakfast creations besides cereal or oatmeal; that's my goal and wish anyway. Awhile back I made some sugary popovers and loved them. I decided to try some other popovers and went searching for some recipes. I found a website called Doughmesstic.com and right there on the menu tab was a link for the Popover Project. Susan, the owner/blogger/baker of the site, is making popovers once a week for the entire year. I saw this recipe off her site and just knew I had to try it out.

Have a great week.

Ingredients: 1 c flour, 1/3 c brown sugar, 1.5 TBSP cinnamon, pinch of salt, 3 TBSP sugar, 2 tsp vanilla, 3 TBSP butter, 4 oz. cream cheese, 3 eggs, and 1 c milk

Instructions: (1) Preheat oven to 375F. (2) Divide butter evenly amongst Popover Pan cups. If you don't have a popover pan, you can use either a 6c or 12c muffin tin but you will end up using all the 12 muffin cups. Place pan in the oven for 3-5 minutes while making the batter. (3) In a medium bowl, beat eggs, vanilla, milk, and brown sugar. Whisk in  flour and cinnamon and divide batter amongst prepared cups. (4) Combine cream cheese and sugar and spoon evenly into cups. (4) Place in oven and bake for 5 minutes at 375 then reduce oven to 350 and continue baking for 20 minutes. Serve with syrup, a sprinkle of powder sugar, ice cream...whatever you want.

*It's better to have the cream cheese softened so the sugar incorporates nicely.

Apple Turnovers

One of the items we will be offering at the markets are our turnovers. Since we use seasonally ingredients, we will be offering a variety of turnovers and throughout the summer, these options will change. One of the turnovers we will almost always have will be our Apple Turnovers. These remind me of the old Hostess fruit pies but without the Comstock fruit fillings.

We use our traditional buttery pie crust recipe for all turnovers. My granddad Nestor would also use this recipe for his pies. I have fond memories of him making pies for the holidays or when we visited. We don't use lard like he use to but the taste is still amazing. I usually use this crust for all my items that require a crust: quiche, chicken pot pies, jelly rolls, etc.  The filling uses granny smith apples. I love tart apples and use them in a lot of my apple recipes. I add spices to them for that perfect filling and honestly, can eat just the filling by itself.

Since I can't give you my granddad's crust recipe, I figured I would grab a recipe for turnovers that is fast and easy to make and is also delicious. This recipe is from Food Network.com and is by Ina Garten, the Barefoot Contessa, copyrighted 2006.  Enjoy.

Ingredients:  1 tsp grated orange zest, 3 TBSPs fresh orange juice, 1.25 lb tart apples, 3 TBSPs dried cherries, 3 TBSPs sugar, 1 TBSP flour, .25 tsp ground cinnamon, 1/8 tsp ground nutmeg,  sea salt, 1 package of puff pastry, egg wash (1 egg beaten with 1 TBSP water)

Instructions: (1) Preheat oven to 400 F and line baking sheet with parchment paper. (2) Combine zest and juice in a large mixing bowl. Peel and core apples and cut into 3/4" dice pieces. Add to juice then combine cherries, sugar, flour, cinnamon, nutmeg, and a pinch of sea salt. (3) Flour a surface and roll out defrosted puff pastry sheet into a 12x12" square. Cut into 4 smaller squares and chill until ready to use. (4) Brush egg wash over a pastry square and add 1/3 of the apple mixture on 1/2 of the square. Fold over diagonally and press edges closed with a fork. Add turnovers to prepared sheet,. Bush egg wash over the top of the pastries and sprinkle with sugar. Cut two slices into the tops of each pastry to vent and bake for 20 minutes until golden brown and puffy. Serve warm or at room temperature.


* Instead of traditional diagonal turnovers you can make a circles and fold over the circles for a semi-circle shape.
* You can omit the cherries and add other dried fruit like cranberries, raisins, figs, etc. or just have the apples.

Strawberries -n- Cream Scones

Strawberries are hitting the local farmers markets and I'm overloading on Strawberries. Sometimes I forget about them being in the fridge and then get some overripe strawberries. When this happens, I usually make a glaze or a strawberry smoothie but this time, I figured I would make strawberry scones. I've enjoyed eating a local chain stores orange scones and have tried their strawberries and cream scones. I figured I would "reverse engineer" the scones and make them at home. The other day I did the orange scones and absolutely loved them. They were nice and moist and popped with orange flavor. I decided to try making the strawberries and cream scones.

Scones are a small British quick bread that traditionally hails from Scotland and Southwest England. Originally the scone was round and flat and baked on a griddle then cut into triangle-like quadrants. Today in Scotland, the large round cake is called a bannock while the quadrants are called scones. You can find scones in a round, biscuit like shape, square shape, or the traditional triangle shape. Scones are the basic component of tea. Devonshire cream, clotted cream, and lemon curd are usually served at teas and used to spread on the scones. Jellies and preserves are also used.

Enjoy this recipe for Strawberries and Cream Scones. If you are adventurous, you can make some lemon curd or some clotted cream to enjoy with your scones.

Ingredients: 2 c flour, 1 TBSP baking powder, 3 TBSP sugar, .5 tsp sea salt, 5 TBSP cold unsalted butter, 1 tsp lemon zest, 1 c diced strawberries, .25 c strawberry preserves, 1 c heavy cream, 1 TBSP lemon juice, .75 c sifted powdered sugar

Instructions: (1) Preheat oven to 425F. (2) Place flour, baking powder, salt, and sugar in a food processor and pulse for 6 1-second pulses. (3) Sprinkle butter, that has been cut into 1/4" cubes, evenly over mixture. Add lemon zest and cover and process for 12 1-second pulses. (4) Transfer dough to a large bowl and mix in strawberries. Add heavy cream and mix the dough with your hands until the dough forms. (5) Knead gently the dough by hand until it comes together into a rough ball and divide dough into 2 equal pieces. (6)Lightly flour your hands and shape dough into 2 8-inch rounds. Spread preserves over one round leaving about .5" plain border. Place the other round on top and seal the edges. Cut the dough into 8 wedges using a pizza cutter or a sharp knife. (7) Place wedges on a baking sheet and bake until tops of scones are lightly brown, about 15 minutes. Transfer to wire rack. (8) Make a lemon icing by adding lemon and powder sugar until you form a thick opaque icing. Drizzle over scones and serve.

*I usually will add some strawberry puree to help make the frosting instead of using lemon juice.