When you think of the summer, what do you think of? To me I think of:Vacation
Bathing Suits
Beach
Outdoors
Cold drinks
Exercising
Picnic's
Sand
Sun
Flowers
Lemonade
Grass
The thing that pretty much comes to the top of the list for me is fruit. Fresh, juicy, sweet fruit. With that, also comes cheap fruit. Every Sunday my dad and I hang out. We take our turns making lunch, and then following lunch we go out and do groceries. It's nice because what I don't get done during the week, I get to get at the end of the week with pops. Last week we went to two different stores for our groceries because we couldn't seem to find nice fruit. Well, we sort of gave up because it was the end of the day and the fruit just wasn't nice. Yesterday we went to three different grocery stores, again the same situation. What did this make me realize? Summer is pretty much over. Sure, the weather MAY still be nice (currently raining and 10 degrees Celcius... hopefully the hot weather comes out a couple more times), but the great fruit is gone, and soon the winter fruits come out, which isn't a terrible thing, but I will really miss the summer.
For this post I decided I wanted to make it an ode to summer, and post recipes that included summer fruits, because to me they are very special.
Blueberry Foccacia
Recipe taken from here
So to start off, we have a blueberry foccacia. This was insanely delicious, plus I made it for my family in Montreal, and well, it was gone the next morning. You tell me whether or not it was successful ;).
Ingredients:
- 1⁄2 cup sugar
- 1 Tbsp grated lemon zest
- 3 to 3 1⁄2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 packet (1⁄4 oz) rapid-rise active dry yeast
- 3⁄4 tsp salt
- 1 1⁄4 cups whole milk
- 1 large egg, lightly beaten
- 1⁄2 stick (1⁄4 cup) unsalted butter, softened
- 2 cups blueberries
Directions:
Pulse sugar and lemon zest in food processor until zest is finely ground and incorporated into the sugar. In a large bowl, whisk 1⁄3 cup of the lemon sugar, 3 cups of the flour, the yeast and salt until blended.
Heat milk in a 2-cup measure in microwave on high 1 1⁄2 minutes, or until temperature registers 130°F on an instant-read thermometer; add to flour mixture with egg and butter. Mix with a rubber spatula until a soft, sticky dough forms; scrape dough onto a floured surface. Using a dough scraper to assist, knead with some of the remaining 1⁄2 cup flour to form a smooth and pliable dough, about 2 minutes. Cover the dough with the mixing bowl; let rest 10 minutes.
Line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Divide dough in half. Working with 1 piece of dough at a time, stretch and pat out on parchment into a 12-in. free-form rectangle, about 1⁄4 in. thick. Scatter with half the blueberries and half of the remaining lemon sugar. On floured surface, pat out and stretch remaining dough slightly larger than the first piece and place over bottom dough. Press edges together and tuck under the loaf. Cover with a sheet of greased plastic wrap. Place baking sheet in a warm area. Let rise 1 hour.
Heat oven to 350°F. With floured fingers, dimple surface of loaf (pierce any bubbling with a knife tip to release air pockets). Scatter top of loaf with remaining blueberries and lemon sugar. Bake 25 to 30 minutes until golden brown. Slide focaccia onto a wire rack and cool slightly. Serve warm.
Raspberry Vanilla Fruit Leather
Recipe taken from here
I had tried to make fruit leather before, and as delicious as it was, it still didn't come close to your artificial fruit roll-up. This recipe however, came very very close, and it tasted just as delicious. This is such an easy recipe to make, you can put it on make it while you're sleeping, I mean really, could you ask for anything more? Perhaps some little fairies who would do the cleaning for you afterwards... but since we don't live in a world with fairies why not take what gifts you can get right?
Ingredients:
- 1 pint of raspberries
- 1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped
- 1/4 tsp pure vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup of honey (more or less to taste)
Directions:
Place raspberries in a blender and blend until liquified. I didn't want seeds in my leather so I strained the raspberry puree through a fine mesh sieve using a spatula to force the juice through while leaving the seeds behind. Pour the seedless puree back in the blender . Add the vanilla seeds, extract and honey and blend until well mixed. Taste the puree to see if it needs any more honey.
For drying in an oven: Place parchment paper on a cookie sheet. Pour mixture onto parchment paper and spread evenly until it is about 1/4 of an inch thick. Dehydrate for 4-6 hours (or until completely dry) at the lowest temperature possible (145F or so)
When your leather is completely dry cut using a pizza cutter or scissors, roll up and enjoy!
To store, put in a airtight glass container and keep it in the pantry. But let me warn you...you might eat them all in one day!
Canteloupe with Mint, Lime and Sea Salt
Recipe taken from here
Oh my gosh, oh my gosh, oh my goooooshh! This has got to be one of the BEST things to do with fruit after chocolate... actually, it may be BETTER than chocolate and fruit. I have never really done anything with fruit when eating it raw, I mean, obviously I've baked with it, and eaten it with chocolate but as for adding different ingredients to my fruit, nope, never. This, was... honestly, AMAZING. It brought out the flavours of the canteloupe and just oh I can't even tell you. It seriously was a party in my mouth. It was just, bliss, pure bliss. This is something I will definitely do over and over again, especially if you get a canteloupe that isn't as sweet as it should be this would do WONDERRRSSS to it, ahhh! Must try, must try.
Ingredients:
- 1 canteloupe, sliced, rind removed
- Fresh mint, chopped
- 1 lime, cut into wedges
- Pinch of sea salt
Directions:
Place melon slices on a large platter. Sprinkle melon slices with fresh mint.
Squeeze fresh lime juice over the melon slices. Sprinkle each slice gently with sea salt.
*Note-chill the melon before cutting/serving, if possible.
Baileys Fruit Dip
Recipe taken from here
And the final recipe I want to show you, is not fruit per se, but is a devilishly delicious fruit dip. Again, I've never even mixed fruit with dip... it kind of weirds me out. Fruit is so awesome by itself, I don't know why you'd want to mask it's beautiful flavours with a dip... that is until you have this. This was... just sinful. Sinful, sinful, sinful. Baileys for one is a weakness of mine, the creaminess, the sweetness, the taste, just everything it really gets to me. Then brown sugar, I mean really, must I describe brown sugar and go into detail about why it's amazing? Then sour cream, really, I used to lick my bowl clearn when I was younger if there was sour cream left over from my meal that hadn't been used up. Therefore, these three ingredients in a menage-a-trois combo, ugh say no more!
Ingredients:
- 2-3 tbsp brown sugar
- 2-3 tbsp Baileys Irish Cream
- 1 tub of sour cream
Directions:
Mix it all together and DIVE IN!
Enjoy!
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