Peach and Blueberry Crostata

This week my friend Jenny gave me two new cookbooks! The first one being "Best of the Best- the best recipes from the best 25 cookbooks this year!- from the Editors of Food and Wine" Now let me just say that this cookbook rocks. I love the fact that it is the top recipes of the best cookbooks, they all look amazing. Recently I had watched Julie and Julia and it made me want to start cooking out of a good cookbook, so what a great gift right!!! The second cookbook was just as fabulous- " The Essential Fingerfood Cookbook- by Bay Books" I am looking forward to making lots of yummy new things very soon. I actually decided to make something already this weekend, a Peach and Blueberry Crostata from Tyler Florence. Now I followed the majority of the recipe, but was not really in the mood to make my own crust- I know it is simple, but this was after spending all day making cupcakes and cakes, so I was feeling a little lazy! ;) So I decided to try a premade pie crust to see how that would work out, I brushed it with egg and sprinkled the sugar as he does on his crust, so I followed some directions! ha! Now I will say after trying it, I do suggest eating it warm with some vanilla ice cream. I also think if I were to make it again, I may try to put a layer of custard between the fruit and the crust!! :) Enjoy-

Ingredients

Pastry:

• 2 cups all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1 lemon, zest finely grated
• 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, cold and cut into small chunks
• 1 large egg yolk
• 2 tablespoons ice water, plus more if needed

Filling:

• 4 large ripe peaches, pitted and sliced
• 1 pint fresh blueberries
• 1/2 lemon, juiced
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• 2 teaspoons all-purpose flour

Glaze:

• 1 large egg, beaten with 1 tablespoon water, for egg wash
• 2 tablespoons sugar
• Vanilla ice cream, for serving

To make the pastry: combine the flour, sugar, salt, and lemon zest in a large mixing bowl. Add the butter and mix with a pastry blender or your hands until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Add the egg yolk and pour in the ice water; work it in to bind the dough until it holds together without being too wet or sticky. Squeeze a small amount together, if it is crumbly, add more ice water, 1 teaspoon at a time. Form the dough into a disk and wrap in plastic wrap; refrigerate for at least 30 minutes.

To make the filling: combine the peaches, blueberries, lemon juice, sugar, and flour in a large mixing bowl. Toss the mixture gently to coat the fruit.
Prepare your wooden burning brick oven according to manufacturer's directions or place a pizza stone in a conventional oven and preheat to 375 degrees F.
Sprinkle the counter and a rolling pin lightly with flour. Roll the dough out into a 14-inch circle, about 1/4-inch thick; it doesn't have to be perfect, free-form is the look you want for this rustic tart. Transfer the dough to a lightly floured pizza paddle. Spoon the fruit mixture into the center of the dough, leaving a 2-inch border all around; brush the border with the egg wash. Lift the edge of crust over the filling, leaving the fruit exposed in center. Gently fold and pinch the dough to seal any cracks. Brush the crust with the remaining egg wash and sprinkle with sugar. Bake the crostata directly on the brick oven floor towards the front or on the preheated pizza stone for 30 to 40 minutes or until the crust is golden brown and fruit is bubbly and tender. Slide a pizza paddle under the tart to remove it from the oven. Serve warm or at room temperature with vanilla ice cream.

Blueberry Apple Cake

So last night in the midst of my heat exhaustion, I still managed to make a cake! I am having dinner with some girl friends tonight and had not really made anything since the weekend, so I thought why not! Extra blueberries and apples = make something!! So I got this recipe from a friend and she can't recall where she got it from, so this is not something I came up with on my own. I did follow the directions and to be honest, was a little disappointed at how dry the bottom of the cake was, so if I were to make it again, I may only keep it in for about 48 mins vs. 55. It is still quite tasty though!

I think with a scoop of ice cream, it would actually make up for any dryness in the cake and be a hit! I will make it again for sure!

Blueberry, Apple Cake- highly adapted from anonymous!

1.5 cups of All Purpose Flour
2 tsp. of baking powder
1/2 tsp. of salt
6 tbsp. of unsalted butter melted
2 tbsp. of cold butter (this will be used on the top of the cake-so you must cut into pieces when ready)
3/4 cup of light brown sugar along with an extra 2 more tbsp. for the topping
1/2 cup of whole milk ( I only had fat free)
2 large eggs
2 apples, a little under a pound. I had smaller apples so I used 3.- cored, peeled and thinly sliced
1 cup of blueberries
1/4 tsp. of cinnamon
whipped cream or ice cream to top (optional, but due to the cake being a little dry, I would serve with some ice cream and maybe heat it up a little as well.)

Preheat oven to 375 degrees
Butter or spray your spring form pan (8 or 9 in cake pan would work as well)
Whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt in one bowl
In another bowl, whisk melted butter, 3/4 cup of brown sugar, milk and the eggs.
Add the wet mixture to the flour mixture and spread batter evenly into prepared pan.
Arrange apple slices over the batter and then sprinkle the blueberries on top. Gently press the fruit into the batter.
Top with the extra brown sugar, cinnamon and dot the remainder of the butter over the top. (personally if I would make this again, I would mix those ingredients together to make a crumble topping)
Bake until top is golden brown, apples are tender and cake tester comes out clean. But as I mentioned earlier, I think 55 mins was too long, I would check it at about 48 mins.

Enjoy-