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Category Archives: Dessert

  • Summer Fruit Lazy Daisy

    July 15, 2013

    25 Comments

    Summer Fruit Lazy Daisy.

    Summer Fruit Lazy Daisy.

    There are some dishes we make here at the farm that are a bit of a mystery before we try them. We ask ourselves if we chose the right recipe, bought the right ingredients, cooked them properly with optimal equipment, plated them well, etc. The only way to really know how we did is to make the dish, take a look at it and taste it. But this is NOT one of those dishes. From the moment you start making a Lazy Daisy cake with summer fruit you know its gonna be good, real good….like staring at the oven while bakes good. From batter to oven to plate this cake just screams “I taste good, serve me with some ice cream!” (It does, we heard it from the oven….we swear).

    lazy3lazy4If looking and tasting great wasn’t enough, the Summer Fruit Lazy Daisy has a few other charms, it is as easy as cake making gets and it will work with almost any summer fruit. If you are like us, between growing fruit and buying it at the farmers market we tend to be up to our armpits have a “surplus” at times. And while we enjoy fruit out of hand and making jam, there is something about a big pancake mixed with peaches and berries and baked in the oven that sounds pretty good (and that’s basically what a Lazy Daisy is). Top it with ice cream and you are ready for a big smile and a nap.

    lazy5lazy6As we noted, and the name suggests, making a Lazy Daisy isn’t hard and is similar to making pancake batter. Heat your oven, grease a pan, melt some butter, mix the dry ingredients, add the wet ingredients and melted butter, pour into a pan, add in some fruit and bake. Cool, sprinkle on some powdered sugar (fend off your eager family and friends) and then serve. It really is that easy.

    lazy7lazy8lazy10The only hard decision is your choice of fruit and presentation. We used our peaches, strawberries and blueberries and then added some blackberries from the farmers market (our blackberries got fried in the heat wave, sigh). A good balance of tart and sweet. You can use any combination of berries and stone fruits, but we suggest you taste them and adjust the sugar to match the sweetness of the fruit. As for presentation, you can choose a pretty design, or just mix everything together. We chose the latter…it is a “Lazy” Daisy, after all.

    lazySummer Fruit Lazy Daisy:

    (Adapted, somewhat, from King Arthur Flour)

    Notes Before You Start:

    • Nada. Big oven pancake with summer fruit. ‘Nuff said.

    What You Get: A delicious and very easy summer cake. A perfect dessert for a summer get together.

    What You Need: No special equipment required.

    How Long? About and hour and 20 minutes, with about 15 minutes of active time. Anytime dish.

    Continue reading →

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    Posted By: putneyfarm Category: All Recipes, Dessert, Fruit, Garden and Orchard Tags: baking, Cocktails, cooking, dessert, food, fruit lazy daisy recipe, lazy daisy, photography, photos, recipes, summer fruit lazy daisy recipe, vegetarian
  • Lemon Buttermilk Scones

    July 9, 2013

    18 Comments

    Lemon Buttermilk Scone.

    Lemon Buttermilk Scone.

    lscone3Another scone recipe? Well, yes. Firstly, Carolyn makes them a lot (the boys and I don’t mind). Secondly, if there is a “gateway drug” into the joys of baking, scones are it. Scones are quick to make, use common ingredients, are easy to tune/tweak and the dough can be frozen for future use. Close to the perfect pastry.

    lscone4lscone5But that doesn’t mean all scones are created equal….we like great scones. A little crunch on the outside, tender and moist on the inside, sweet but not cloying. Happily, Carolyn bakes up some truly awesome scones. And this recipe for lemon buttermilk scones is one of Carolyn’s better variations. And since the recipe features two of our favorite “special” ingredients, we aren’t surprised we like it so much.

    lscone6lscone7What special ingredients are we talking about? That would be citrus zest and buttermilk. If you want to be a better baker and/or cook, these are ingredients you need to use on a regular basis. Citrus zest brings clean bright citrus notes to dishes without the liquid, sourness and acid of the juice. If you wonder what that extra kick is in that super-tasty chicken, fish or veggie dish- look for some zest (sometimes you can’t even see it, but it was there). In baking or ice-cream making citrus zest brings out big flavors with minimal footprint or impact on the chemistry/balance of a recipe. And don’t even get us stared on citrus zest and cocktails…..a lifetime study (one we are pursuing as we speak).

    lscone10

    The daily haul from the garden- good with scones.

    Continue reading →

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    Posted By: putneyfarm Category: All Recipes, Breakfast, Dessert, Fruit, Garden and Orchard Tags: best scone recipe, buttermilk scones, Cocktails, cooking, cooking with zest, food, garden, lemon buttermilk scones, photography, photos, recipes, vegetarian
  • Mai Tai Sorbet

    June 11, 2013

    22 Comments

    Mai Tai Sorbet, with a little extra rum...

    Mai Tai Sorbet, with a little extra rum…

    This is one of the best dishes we’ve made so far at the farm. What do we mean by “best”? Well, it certainly tastes great (like a Mai Tai) and was fun to make, but it is also “ours”. This one was our inspiration and our recipe. We searched the web for Mai Tai sorbet recipes and other than a passion fruit and pineapple thing that may taste good, but has nothing to do with a real Mai Tai, there are no other recipes. We will “claim” this one so please excuse us if we crow a little. But if anyone has examples otherwise, that is fine. We are just happy to keep making this.

    mts6mts5The inspiration came from a somewhat odd source. A few weeks ago Carolyn made Elegant White Cake with Chocolate Ganache, and it was very, very tasty. One of the key flavors of the cake was a little almond extract that gave the cake a marzipan-ish flavor. We wondered what other dishes might benefit from a touch of almond and we immediately though of the almond and orange flower water flavor of orgeat syrup. If you are unfamiliar with orgeat, it is the key flavoring that makes a Mai Tai a Mai Tai. We also had some Cara Cara oranges we need to use, and suddenly the idea of “Mai Tai Sorbet” came up. Carolyn thought it sounded like a decent idea, so we gave it a try.

    mts7mts8The recipe came together quickly. A Mai Tai cocktail combines two aged rums, lime juice, Cointreau (or orange Curaçao), orgeat, simple syrup and is garnished by a lime shell and some mint. Our Mai Tai Sorbet combines lime juice, orange juice, simple syrup, a few drops of almond extract, dashes of aged rum and Cointreau (you could also use rum and/or orange extracts) and some Bittermen’s Tiki Bitters (optional, but very good). We garnish with a sprig of mint and some grated lime zest to mimic the lime shell in the cocktail.

    mts10mts9The only trick to this recipe is to taste your sorbet base as you make it. Oranges vary in sweetness and extracts vary in strength. We make a little extra simple syrup to tune our base, and remember that the base will taste sweeter than the final sorbet- frozen foods taste less sweet. So if the base tastes a bit sweeter than you like, it is probably right. We also add the almond extract a few drops at a time and taste. Almond extract is strong stuff, so we used about 8 drops, tasting as we went. Same for the Tiki bitters, we ended up at about 6 drops, but tune to your taste. Continue reading →

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    Posted By: putneyfarm Category: All Recipes, Cocktail Recipes, Dessert, Fruit, Rum / Cachaca Tags: best sorbet recipe, Cocktails, cooking, dessert, DrinkWire, food, Mai Tai, mai tai sorbet, photography, photos, recipes, sorbet, tiki sorbet
  • Elegant White Cake With Chocolate Ganache

    June 3, 2013

    21 Comments

    Elegant White Cake With Chocolate Ganache.

    Elegant White Cake With Chocolate Ganache.

    Funny thing about cake. Baking a cake is easy. Really. Frosting the cake may be a challenge, but once you have the gear, you can bake cakes pretty much whenever you want. All you need are a few cake pans and a mixer (if you don’t have a stand mixer, baking cakes is a good excuse to get one). Ingredients? If you have the basics like sugar, flour, baking powder, butter and eggs you can bake a cake. Easy.

    elegant3elegant2Once you get the basics down, you can mix and match flavors, fillings and frostings to your heart’s delight. And the delight of others. “And I baked a cake”, is something people like to hear. Baking cakes, assuming you share them, is a good way to make friends and influence people. Such is the power of cake. And cakes serve a crowd, so they are a good excuse to have people over. (If you are gluten-free just eat the frosting and have an extra drink 😉 )

    elegant5elegant6So what’s the catch? Well, it takes some time and planning to bake a cake, and frosting cakes is either something you love or hate to do. Carolyn likes baking and frosting cakes, so we are in luck. And one of the bonuses of summer grilling and smoking is that I am often out of the kitchen so Carolyn has plenty of space to bake without any bumbling interference from me. Carolyn even has time to experiment. That is usually good news for us.

    elegant7elegant8elegant9For this cake, our youngest son wanted “a cake that tasted like a hot fudge sundae”. So Carolyn combined a King Arthur Flour recipe for “Elegant White Cake” with a filling of chocolate ganache and a basic vanilla buttercream frosting. This cake is indeed white in color (no egg yolks), has a very fine texture (cake flour, not AP) and has the added bonus of almond extract that imparts a welcome marzipan-ish note. Real. Good. Cake. Elegant? Sure.

    elegant10elegant11elegant13And the “elegant” cake worked very, very well with the chocolate ganache and buttercream. In fact, one of the treats was dipping the cake trimmings into the ganache and frosting (until Carolyn kicked us out of the kitchen so she could frost the cake). It may seem like a simple combination, but vanilla, dark chocolate and the touch of marzipan kept us coming back again and again. This cake disappeared quickly. Good thing it is so easy to bake another…

    elegant4Elegant White Cake With Chocolate Ganache:

    (Cake adapted from King Arthur Flour)

    Notes Before You Start:

    • The cake recipe makes enough batter for 3 8-inch rounds, 2 9-inch rounds or a 9×13 single layer cake. This recipe is for the 3 8-inch rounds. If baking 9-inch rounds, increase cooking time to 25-30 minutes. If baking the 9×13 cake, cook for about 35 minutes.
    • If you don’t want to fill with chocolate ganache, just use the buttercream.

    What You Get: Fine-grained white cake with a touch of almond flavor and then a big kick of chocolate. What else do you need?

    What You Need: Cake pans and a stand mixer. You don’t have to use a mixer, but most modern recipes assume you will.

    How Long? A couple of hours from start to finish, with 30-40 minutes of active time. Nothing here is hard, you just need patience and a bit of planning.

    Continue reading →

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    Posted By: putneyfarm Category: All Recipes, Dessert Tags: baking dessert, Buttercream, chocolate ganache, cooking, elegant white cake, food, king arthur flour, photography, photos, recipes, white cake, white cake with chocolate ganache
  • Caramel Cake

    May 23, 2013

    37 Comments

    Caramel Cake.

    Caramel Cake.

    caramel13So here is the good news, this is one tasty cake. The caramel frosting has a crystallized, almost maple candy-like outer shell and a creamy, caramel-flavored interior. The yellow cake is moist and delicious. The combination is a perfect bite. You don’t even want ice cream with this cake. Just enjoy it as it is.

    caramelcaramel1So here is the bad news. This is a hard cake to make and not one that welcomes any messin’ around with the recipe. Caramel frosting is tricky stuff and you need to make a sturdy cake to handle such a heavy frosting. But if you follow the formula you get a delightful dish. And it is worth the effort.

    caramel2caramel5And we do use the word “formula” here. As we (and others) often like to note, baking is a form of chemistry. And in many cases you simply can’t play with the basic formula and get good results. To be fair, baking is hardly as exact a science as “real” chemistry. Humidity, inconsistent ingredients, finicky ovens and variations in cookware make baking a very inexact science, even in the best conditions. But we suggest that if you make this cake you stick with the recipe (at least the first time you bake it).

    caramel7caramel8We adapted the recipe (barely) from a Cook’s Country recipe. Cook’s Country is Cook’s Illustrated’s less  ridiculous? obnoxious?  “overbearing” cousin, and tends to feature recipes that you can make and actually work. This is one of those recipes. They do add some technique and tuning to a traditional recipe, but in real terms the big addition is using all-purpose flour in the cake and not softer cake flour. Using AP flour makes for a firmer, but still moist, cake that can handle the thick, heavy frosting.

    caramel9caramel11Otherwise, the other key technique is to beat extra butter into the frosting just before you apply it to the cake. Butter does make everything better, and if it makes the frosting easier to work with, then we are all for it. The bigger challenge will be keeping your fingers out of the frosting. It tastes so good, you can lose quite a bit as it makes its way to the cake. But we do encourage a little patience. When you combine the frosting with the cake, it is even better.

    caramel10caramel14So if you have the time this Memorial Day weekend, this is a cake worth making. Is it a bit of extra fuss? Well….yes. It it worth it? Without a doubt.

    Caramel Cake:

    (Adapted from Cook’s Country)

    Notes Before You Start:

    • No extra notes. Just follow the recipe and take your time.

    What You Get: A crowd-pleasing, sweet and flavorful cake with awesome caramel frosting. Yum.

    What You Need: A stand mixer (or electric mixer) and 2, 9-inch cake pans.

    How Long? 3 hours, with about an hour, maybe a little more, of active time. Details matter here, so taking your time is advised.

    Continue reading →

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    Posted By: putneyfarm Category: All Recipes, Dessert Tags: Baking and Confections, cake, caramel cake, Cocktails, cooking, food, photography, photos, recipes
  • Maple Moon Scones

    May 14, 2013

    24 Comments

    moon1

    Maple Moon Scones.

    Mother’s Day has come and gone, but Carolyn is such a cool Mom that she made these scones for us, her folks and friends for Sunday morning (don’t worry, Carolyn got a nice Mother’s Day dinner). She is indeed the perfect woman. And these scones are worthy of a special occasion. Big (huge, really), moist and with plenty of maple flavor, these are some serious scones. They do look like the moon, too. Cool.

    moon4moon3moon5The recipe comes from Ina Garten (the Barefoot Contessa), although Carolyn adapted a number of ingredients, including some oat flour, date sugar and maple essence for deeper flavor. But the standard Ina Garten formula of scads lots of butter and buttermilk stays the same. Ina never met a buttery scone or shortbread she didn’t like. But if you are baking from scratch, the recipe may as well work. And butter does make everything better. Add some real maple syrup and it is hard to go wrong.

    moon6moon8moon9And it truly is hard to go wrong here. This recipe is “scone 101”, plus some extra glaze. Mix dry ingredients, add in cold butter, mix the wet ingredients and add to the dry, roll, cut and bake. The glaze is super-easy as well, if you can stir, you will have glaze. So if your waistline can take it (or if you have hungry kids), you can make these scones whenever you like.

    moon10moon12Even better, you can cut the scones from the raw dough and refrigerate them for a few days without any loss of quality. So if you want scones during the week, make the dough and then bake the scones as needed. But you may as well cook the full batch, your crew will certainly eat them, and your friends will be happy if you share.

    moon2Finally, love and thanks to Carolyn from the boys and I. We are truly blessed to have her, and we are eternally grateful.

    moonMaple Moon Scones:

    (Adapted from Ina Garten)

    Notes Before You Start:

    It is best to dice the butter first, and then put it back into the fridge until ready to use.

    Also a good idea to measure and mix the wet ingredients first, and also store in the fridge until use. It keep everything colder, longer.

    This is a sticky dough- use lots of flour on your surface and on your hands.

    What You Get: Big, awesome scones with serious maple flavor.

    What You Need: A stand mixer really helps here. No other special equipment required.

    How Long? About an hour.

    Continue reading →

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    Posted By: putneyfarm Category: All Recipes, Breakfast, Dessert Tags: baking, barefoot contessa, best scone recipe, Cocktails, cooking, food, maple moon scones, maple scones, photography, photos, recipes

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