Raspberry-Lemon Shrub

Summer is coming to an end. Well, supposedly. It was over 90 degrees today, so it doesn't really feel like it. Soon enough, though, all those tasty fruits of summer will be less abundant. Let's get at them while they're still everywhere and so so good.

Shrubs are awesome. They're fermented fruit, vinegar, and sugar. So easy to make and great with sparkling water – or in cocktails, if you're in the mood.

Go enjoy the last bits of summer! Sit on a porch and sip this.

Raspberry-Lemon Shrub via Reclaiming Provinical:

Yield: approx. 2 cups syrup

2 c. raspberries

Zest of 1 lemon

10 black peppercorns, slightly crushed

1½ c. sugar

1 c. white wine vinegar

1 c. apple cider vinegar

Combine raspberries, lemon zest, peppercorns, and sugar in a bowl or jar, stirring to evenly coat the fruit. Allow mixture to sit for around 1 hour, then crush until everything is nice and broken up. I used a potato masher. Cover and let sit for 24 hours. At room temperature is fine, but feel free to stick it in the fridge too.

After 24 hours, mash the mixture again, trying to crush the fruit as much as possible. Let it sit for another 24 hours.

Add the vinegars and stir well. Store at room temperature for 7–9 days, giving it a good stir each day. When finished, pour the mixture through a cheesecloth-lined sieve, then transfer to a clean jar or container. Store syrup in the fridge.

For drinks, add 1 part syrup to 2.5–3 parts sparkling water or mix it in with your favorite cocktail. I think this would make for a killer Moscow mule.

Red Raspberry Pie

There are so many wonderful things to do with raspberries (cake. ice cream. sauce.), but summer really is about pies. My mom group had a French picnic for Bastille Day and that meant lots of food. We could have said “let them eat cake” (historically inaccurate, BTW), but instead I said “let's eat pie.”

Red Raspberry Pie via Alice Bay Cookbook:

Makes 1 9” pie

1 9” baked pie shell (use one half of the best pie dough recipe ever and fully blind bake it.)

1 quart fresh raspberries

¾ c. sugar

2½ Tb. corn starch

¼ tsp. salt

½ c. water

½ c. fresh orange juice

Remove 1 cup of raspberries and puree in blender or press through sieve. (Or use a food processor). Set aside.

In a medium saucepan, combine sugar, cornstarch, salt, water, and orange juice. Cook over low heat, stirring constantly, until thickened, about 10 to 15 minutes. Add pureed raspberries.

Place whole raspberries in pie shell. Pour syrup over the berries. Chill in refrigerator for at least 4 hours.

Super easy. Super summery. This one you should do before summer is over.

Risotto Rice Pudding with Brown Sugar and Vanilla

Sometimes you just need dessert and you need to not leave the house. Sure, cookies are always a good choice, but sometimes you just gotta do something different. Sometimes you gotta make rice pudding. This is a fabulous recipe, though it does take a little longer to come together than stated. Worth it. Add the caramel like we did. Also so worth it.

Risotto Rice Pudding with Brown Sugar and Vanilla via Joy the Baker:

Serves 4

2 Tb. unsalted butter

1 c. Arborio rice

3½ to 4 c. milk

¼ c. brown sugar

¼ tsp. salt

¼ tsp. ground cinnamon

large pinch allspice

1 vanilla bean, split and scraped (seeds only) or 1 Tb. pure vanilla extract

Blackberries (or any berries) for topping

Caramel sauce for topping

In a medium saucepan, over low heat, scald 4 cups of milk. Bring the milk to just under boiling, turn off the flame and let it rest.

In a large saucepan, over low heat, melt the butter. Add the rice grains and stir to coat. Ladle in just enough hot milk to cover the rice. Stir (with a wooden spoon) over the low flame. The rice will begin to absorb the milk. When the milk is almost fully absorbed, ladle in more hot milk. Stir until absorbed. Continue this process, standing over the stove, stirring milky rice. Taste the rice as you near the end of the milk. You may only need 3½ cups instead of 4. As you add the last bit of milk, also incorporate the sugar, salt, spices, and scraped vanilla beans. Stir well to combine.

Stir over low heat until the milk is gone and the rice is tender, with just a hint of a toothsome bite.

If you want it thicker, continue to cook it for a bit longer. Serve warm or cold, with fresh berries or without. Or frozen berries. Or caramel sauce.

Rice pudding will last, in an airtight container in the refrigerator, for up to 4 days.

Super tasty! Super easy! Do it now!

New Year's Eve Champagne Cupcakes with Kir Royale Frosting

A holiday rolls around, and I decide to bake. It's becoming my own little tradition. At almost the last minute, Aaron and I ended up hosting at NYE party at our place. After asking everyone to bring a drink or a snack if they could, I hunted through my ridiculous number of starred dessert recipes (160 and counting!) and when I found these, I said perfect and got rolling.

And then I realized, while baking, I had run out of powdered sugar during the baking extravaganza and hadn't replaced it and we were short on eggs. Lucky for me, I have a corner store and it saved my cupcakes! I didn't have any creme de cassis, the traditional liquor of a kir royale, but I did have some black raspberry liquor, which I decided was close enough. Though my frosting wasn't purple at all (I should have added more), it was very delicious.

New Year's Eve Champagne Cupcakes with Kir Royale Frosting slightly modified from 52 Cupcakes:

Makes 15 large and 12 mini cupcakes

For the cupcakes-
2¾ c. all-purpose flour
3 tsp. baking powder
1 tsp. salt
2/3 c. butter
1½ c. sugar
¾ c. champagne (go for sweet versus dry)
6 egg whites

For the frosting-
¾ c. vegetable shortening
1½ sticks of unsalted butter, room temperature
4 Tb. champagne
1 Tb. black raspberry liquor
16 oz. powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Prepare a cupcake pan with liners.

In a large bowl, cream together butter and sugar until very light and fluffy. Sift flour, baking powder, and salt together, and then blend into creamed mixture alternately with champagne.

In another large clean bowl, beat egg whites until stiff peaks form. Fold 1/3 of the whites into batter to lighten it then fold in remaining egg whites. Fill the cupcake liners about 2/3 full.

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted into the cake comes out clean.

While they cool, make the frosting. In a large bowl beat the shortening and butter until combined. Add the champagne and black raspberry liquor. Slowly add the powdered sugar and beat until smooth. If necessary, add additional champagne to achieve desired consistency. I ended up adding more and may have come close to ruining the frosting, but it was so cool to watch the fizzy bubbles mix in. The key to great frosting is really letting everything mix in together and then beating it a little longer. The champagne helped too.

I added the gelt on top because I bought too much for Chanukah and I thought they looked festive. These are really tasty! The cake is like a slightly sweet cornbread, which sounds a little weird, but really works. It’s a sweet, but not too sweet dessert and a great way to celebrate. Like, for the birthday of someone special (happy birthday Renai!).

I hope you all are having a great start to 2011!

Vegan Raspberry Ice Cream

Shortly before being gifted so many raspberries, I saw this recipe. David Lebovitz is one of my favorite food bloggers and I was super stoked to see an ice cream recipe, as ice cream is one of my favorite things to make. I thought of it again when I was coming down to my last pint of raspberries and though yes, this is the way to finish off that flat.

Through careful cobbling of his vegan strawberry ice cream with the Ben and Jerry's recipe for raspberry ice cream, I think I got something nice. I omitted the honey as the raspberries were so tart, the flavor really would've been lost. There's more sugar in mine than his because strawberries don't need it, but raspberries do.

Vegan Raspberry Ice Cream modified from Vegan Strawberry Ice Cream from David Lebovitz:

Makes 1 quart

1 large pint raspberries
¾ c. sugar
Juice of 1 lemon
1½ c. rice milk
2 Tb. raspberry vodka

Mix raspberries, sugar, and lemon juice together in a large bowl. Cover and refrigerate for 2 hours, stirring every 30 minutes.

Mash berry mixture using a potato mashed. Add rice milk and raspberry vodka (regular would also be fine, I just happened to have raspberry Stoli on hand) and mash until pureed. Generally when making ice cream, you don't add the liquor in until the end because it lowers the freezing temperature, but because this is dairy free, it needs the vodka to prevent it from getting too hard.



Chill thoroughly and then mix in an ice cream mixer for 22 minutes (or according to the manufacturer's instructions). Freeze for at least 2 hours, preferably overnight, and serve. I'll admit, though, that I couldn't wait and had some immediately after I turned off the machine.

This stuff is incredible! It's like creamy sorbet, but somehow not sherbet-y. The raspberries are super tart and they were just made for this. The addition of the raspberry vodka is perfect and it is still so soft, unlike many other vegan ice creams I've had. I've been mixing it with mango sorbet and I'll tell ya, it tastes like summer.

Raspberry Chipotle Sauce

Because Kai and Jules gave us a full flat of raspberries and because they had traveled from the Skagit Valley, we needed to use them up quick. This was not a problem for me because I love raspberries. Aaron got to searching around and found the recipe. I didn't realize until today that it was an Emeril recipe, but I have to give him credit for this one. It's really, really good. I still really dislike him though. A lot. Moving on...

There's a great sweet and smoky flavor that comes out of this and it's perfect for this time of year. I only did prep on this one. The whole thing was entirely Aaron's idea and I am so glad he found it. Even if it is Emeril.

Raspberry Chipotle Sauce from Favorite Recipes from Emeril's Restaurants:

Makes 1½ cups

1 Tb. olive oil
½ c. small diced onion
2 tsp. minced garlic
2 tsp. chipotle chilies in adobo, chopped (we definitely put in more)
2 pints fresh raspberries, rinsed
½ c. raspberry vinegar (we subbed white wine vinegar)
¾ c. granulated sugar
½ tsp. salt



In a medium pan, heat oil over medium-high heat. Add the onions and cook, stirring, until soft and slightly caramelized, 4 minutes. Add the garlic to the pan and sauté for 1 minute. Add the chipotle chilies and cook, stirring continuously, for 1 minute. Add the raspberries and cook until soft, 2 to 3 minutes. Add the vinegar and stir to deglaze the pan. Add the sugar and salt, and bring to a boil.

Reduce the heat to medium and simmer until thickened and reduced by half, 8 to 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and cool before using. Aaron was really excited because he’s had issues with reducing sauces before. This one worked like a dream.

If you want to, strain through a fine mesh strainer, pressing on the solids with the back of a spoon to extract as much liquid as possible. Aaron and I decided that having the solids in gave it more character.

He then used it two different ways, reserving the rest for other meals. First he mixed it into some ground buffalo meat for buffalo burgers. Then he mixed it into a bit of mayo for the burgers. I love how the seeds show up in both.

And look at that burger! It was fantastic! The sauce added a subtle sweet-spicy flavor that just rocked with the buffalo. It helped that we had an awesome tomato from Kai and rocking lettuce from the farmer’s market, not to mention those buns. They’re from a local bakery and these pubs buns just make burgers sing.

This was a rocking sauce. We used it the next day for buffalo tacos. I want to make this again for a BBQ glaze. I think it would also be awesome with blackberries. So there you go Emeril. You got me to eat something of yours. I'll learn how to deal just because this is so good.

Raspberry Buttermilk Cake

Once upon a time, there was a girl who had amazing friends who brought her yummy deliciousness just because they were visiting. And then she turned that deliciousness into even more deliciousness and spread the happy food love around.

My friend Kai and his fiancee Jules are amazing. I've known Kai for quite some time, but what makes his visits so special, other than the bounty of food he always brings, is that he's known Aaron since they were both six. It's fun watching old friends, especially when Aaron noted that it was ironic to be cleaning up the house for someone he used to invite over to mess up his house.

Anyway, he and Jules were in town doing some wedding related things and they brought this flat of raspberries that are now among some of the best tasting raspberries I've ever had. It's good to know people who can grow things. What was so serendipitous about receiving these raspberries is that Renai had been getting on me to make this out of this world raspberry buttermilk cake. Not only that, when I was in Juneau, her mom told me that if I hadn't made it yet, I had to. I said I would when I got home and lo and behold, raspberries!

They aren't kidding about this cake either. It is amazing, which is why it gets to be the second Smitten Kitchen recipe this month. I made three of them in a week.

Raspberry Buttermilk Cake slightly modified from Smitten Kitchen:

Makes one delicious cake

1 c. flour (I did 2/3 all-purpose, 1/3 whole wheat. Like Renai.)
½ tsp baking powder
½ tsp baking soda
¼ tsp salt
½ stick unsalted butter, softened
2/3 cup sugar
1½ Tb. raw turbinado sugar (or use regular, like the original recipe. I like the crunchiness of the raw)
½ tsp. pure vanilla extract
½ tsp finely grated lemon zest (optional. Just do it. I did closer to 1 tsp)
1 large egg
½ c. well-shaken buttermilk (or 2 Tb. buttermilk powder)
1 c. fresh raspberries (I definitely had more, but I also ate a lot of them in the process. Just eyeball it)



Heat oven to 400°F with rack in middle. Butter and flour a 9" round cake pan. Mine are 10", which led to a slightly flatter cake, but still good. I also floured with whole wheat because it lends a slightly nuttier flavor, which I love.

Whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, and salt and set aside. In a larger bowl, beat butter and 2/3 cup sugar with an electric mixer at medium-high speed until pale and fluffy, about two minutes, then beat in vanilla and zest. Add egg and beat well.

At low speed, mix in flour mixture in three batches, alternating with buttermilk, beginning and ending with flour, and mixing until just combined.Spoon batter into cake pan, smoothing top. Scatter raspberries evenly over top and sprinkle with 1½ tablespoons raw sugar. As you can see, I did this two different ways. This first time I just scattered them all over the place because I didn't really care. The second time, on one of the cake I was very careful and even. I think I like the look of the random scatter better, at least in whole cake form, but to each their own.

Bake until cake is golden and a wooden pick inserted into center comes out clean, 20 to 25 minutes. Cool in pan 10 minutes, then turn out onto a rack and cool to warm, 10 to 15 minutes more. Invert onto a plate. Pay attention to the short baking time. It is done really quickly and I don't usually get perfect cakes at the low end of times given in recipes, but this time I did. It was perfect at 20.

Serve it up and watch your friends enjoy. There's a reason Renai and Nicki were on me to make this. It is an amazingly easy, amazingly tasty cake. It was a big hit at my house, at work, and at my friend's house for movie night. You could put in any berry and it would work. It's not overly sweet, so you can force your dessert on non-dessert people and they will understand why you bake all the time. Be careful of how easy and tasty this is. It is dangerous to put yourself on an all-cake diet!

I know I will be making this again and soon.

Mixed Berry Cobbler

Updating finally. Thanks for the reminder Steffani. I’ve had this ready to go for a bit now and just forgot to do it. Oh well.

It’s finally feeling like summer in Portland. The sun is out, everyone’s smiling, and the farmer’s market is filled with delicious, delicious berries (I told you I’d be coming back to this!). My beautiful, fantastic friend Renai came to visit two weekends ago and we decided to do a cross-blog extravaganza and focus around the farmer’s market. Renai’s blog involves a ton of cool, look what I’m cooking now recipes, especially some very neat vegan stuff I wouldn’t have ever thought of. It’s because she’s a fantastic lady.



So with berries in mind, we went down to the big Saturday farmer’s market at PSU and eventually picked up a flat of mixed berries, which included blueberries, raspberries, and blackberries. We ate a good chunk of this before we even made it back to the house. Sitting in my dining room, looking over some of my fave cookbooks and the internet, we debated ideas back and forth. After rejecting pie for the time factor (sorry pie! We had dinner to make too!), we settled on a cobbler recipe from the Alice Bay Cookbook, which was featured last fall here. Going with the whole local berries, Pacific Northwest thing, we went for it.

And it was so worth it. I love cooking with Renai. She’s a great partner in the kitchen.

Mixed Berry Cobbler modified from Blackberry Cobbler from the Alice Bay Cookbook:

About 8-12 portions, depending on how berry crazy everyone is.

1½ c. sugar
½ c. unbleached white flour
1 tsp. salt
8 c. mixed berries (I’d go for a good mix of sweet and tart. Our blackberries were almost like jam, but the raspberries had a good bit of bite to them. Experiment and see what works for you).
3 Tb. lemon juice (fresh, if you’ve got it)
3 Tb. butter
Biscuit Topping-
2 c. sifted unbleached flour
4 tsp. baking powder
3 Tb. sugar
1 tsp. salt
½ c. butter
2/3 c. milk
1 egg, slightly beaten

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.



Mix together sugar, flour, salt, berries, and lemon juice. Pour into a 13 x 9-inch baking dish, and dot with butter. Bake for 15 minutes, until hot and bubbly.

Meanwhile, make biscuit topping. Mix together sifted flour, baking powder, sugar, and salt in a mixing bowl. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse cornmeal. Add milk and beaten egg that your friend has kindly already mixed together for you, and stir with a fork until just blended.







While berry mixture is hot and bubbly, spoon biscuit mixture on top in 10 or 12 dollops (or be less specific, like Renai, and just glop it all over the place). Return to oven for 20 minutes, until biscuits are browned. My oven decided this would be about 24 minutes. Allow to cool for at least 10 minutes before serving. Top with ice cream or whipped cream. Or just eat it and enjoy.



This was a pretty fantastic dessert. The only thing I’d change is making the glops of biscuit mixture a little more spread out. But for a first time team-up, I’d say we did a great job. Everyone seemed to enjoy it quite a bit and it was a fantastic way to use a ton of berries.

We also made dinner, but there are no pictures of that. That’s okay because I mostly just chopped veggies for salad and opened up and emptied a can of Coors Light to poach salmon that was taking too long to cook. It was tasty and was perfectly finished off with the cobbler. I can’t wait to collaborate with Renai again.

Raspberry and Cream Cheese Bread plus French Toast

This delicious bread recipe comes courtesy of my ambitious list of recipes that I am slowly working through. Originally called Blueberry and Cream Cheese Bread, there is a note underneath that says raspberries, strawberries, or blackberries can be substituted, which is what I did. I think the marbled red with the whiteness of the bread is so pretty and it is very, very tasty.

The main reason I did this recipe, though, was due to the other half of the note which states “this marbled bread makes terrific French toast.” So that’s what I did (and documented!) and it was quite terrific.

The only issue I had at all was the top of the bread being a teeny bit burnt. I did it on the low side of the bake time and should have been checking on it due to all the mushy fruit on top. It was only a little burnt, though, and hardly affects the flavor. Just be more careful than I was!

Raspberry and Cream Cheese Bread modified from Blueberry and Cream Cheese Bread from Flavored Breads:

Yield: 1 loaf

8 oz. cream cheese
2 Tb. sugar
2 Tb. butter, softened
2 eggs
1 c. lukewarm water
2 tsp. active dry yeast
4 c. bread flour
1½ tsp. salt
2 c. raspberries (I used frozen, defrosted and drained)

In the bowl of a heavy-duty electric mixer fitted with a flat beater, cream together the cream cheese, sugar, and butter. Add the eggs and cream for 1 minute longer.

Place the water in a separate bowl. Sprinkle the yeast over the water, stir in, and let sit for 2 minutes. Add the yeast to the cream cheese mixture. Add the flour and salt (I mixed the two together beforehand) and mix with a dough hook (or knead by hand) for 4 to 6 minutes, or until dough is smooth and elastic. As usual, I started this in the mixer and finished it off by hand. It goes faster and you still get the joy of kneading bread.

Transfer the dough to a lightly oiled bowl (for example, a cleaned out mixer bowl that you just used) and cover with plastic wrap. Let rise in a warm place for 1 hour, or until approximately doubled in volume.



Carefully fold in the raspberries into the risen dough until evenly incorporated. Turn out onto a lightly floured surface. From here he goes on to have you form a round loaf. Instead of doing this, I just shaped it square and dropped it into a square baking pan.

Anyway, shape the loaf how you please (it’s really only a suggestion) and lightly butter or oil a 10-inch square baking pan or cake pan with sides at least 2 inches high and dust with bread flour. Place the loaf seam side down in the pan. Cover with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place for 20 minutes, or until approximately doubled in volume.



Preheat oven to 400 degrees. Uncover the loaf and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, or until dark brown. Let the bread cool in the pan for 10 minutes. Turn the loaf out onto a rack to finish cooling. I left mine in the pan because when I tried to take it out, it bent funny and raspberries got all over the counter. It was fine.

So! French toast. It’s delicious. In case you don’t know how to do it, it’s really easy, and it makes good use of stale bread. Or this bread. Anyway, this is what I did for 2 people:

2 eggs
¼ tsp. salt
½ c. milk
Splash of vanilla extract
Dash of cinnamon
3 slices of raspberry and cream cheese bread, cut in half



In a pie pan (this work out perfectly, but any flat dish with sides will do) beat eggs slightly, add salt and milk, flavor with vanilla extract, and add cinnamon to taste. Dip the bread into the mixture, coating on both sides. I like to let one set sit while I cook another and the flip them when I flip the ones in the pan.



Brown the bread, each side, on a hot, well-buttered griddle or pan. It only takes a couple of minutes for each side. Serve hot with your choice of syrups. It’s a very sweet way to start a day and I love that. Daaang! So good!