Apricot Lavender Cake

At the blueberry farm we bought some apricots in addition to the blueberries. I had seen this recipe on a fellow food blogger's Instagram and wanted to make it right away. Lavender forever. I didn't have a springform pan, so I split the cake into 2 pans. The recipe is from Plenty More via The Baking Bird. I've been cooking my way through Plenty (the original book) now that it's summer and all the vegetables are in season. Our tomatoes are just ripening now. 

• ¾ cup plus 1 Tablespoon unsalted butter, room temperature
• 2 Tablespoons coconut oil
• 1 cup plus 1½ Tablespoons white sugar
• 1¼ cups almond flour
• 4 eggs, beaten
• 1 cup pecans
• ¾ cup all-purpose flour
• 1/8 tsp sea salt 
• ½ teaspoon almond extract
• grated zest of 1 lemon
• 1½ teaspoons dried lavender buds
• 11 ripe apricots, halved and pitted
• Turbinado sugar 
• 
  
• Preheat oven to 375 degrees F. Grease 2 8 inch pans.
• Process the pecans and lavender in a food processor until the mixture looks like coarse crumbs. In a large mixing bowls, combine The butter, oil, sugar, and almond flour until fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, whisking after each addition to incorporate fully. continuing to beat until well incorporated. Fold in pecans, lavender, flour, vanilla, lemon zest, and teaspoon salt.
• Fill pans with cake batter and arrange apricot halves cut side up. Push down slightly so they are securely in place in the cake. Sprinkle with turbinado sugar.
• Bake for 40 minutes until golden brown. 
• I served each slice with a dollop of mascarpone and a drizzle of honey.

Lavender Peaches with Mascarpone and Amaretti

Peaches with Lavender Sugar and Amaretti Cookies

It's peach season! I've been making these for years but originally I saw the recipe while watching Giada on the Food Network. This recipe includes gram measurements for the cookies. Love and Olive Oil has a recipe that uses cup measurements. I was just really excited to use my scale.

I also made powdered sugar for this recipe in my Vitamix. It was pretty exciting! (I inhaled a lot of sugar granules in the process)

Amaretti Cookies 

• 3 large egg whites 
• 280g/9.9oz almond meal
• 280g/9.9oz white sugar
• 3/4 tsp natural almond extract (the artificial kind is too strong)
• ½ tsp vanilla extract
• 
  
• For rolling:
• 2 heaped tbsp. white sugar
• 2 heaped tbsp. powdered sugar

Preheat oven to 325 degrees. Line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. Fill 2 separate bowls with the different sugars.

In a large mixing bowl and using a mixer, whisk the egg whites to stiff peaks. If you lift your beaters out of the egg mixture, the peaks that form should not fall over.

Fold in the rest of the ingredients with a spatula. The dough will be sticky.

Scoop tablespoonfuls of dough and roll them in the white sugar first followed by the powdered sugar. The method helps all the powdered sugar not dissolve in the dough. It actually worked! 

Place cookies 1 inch apart on cookie sheets. Bake for 15 minutes or until lightly golden brown. Let cool on cookie sheets.

The site said they're good for 3-4 days, so I froze about half of mine for later.

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I usually serve 1 peach/person, so I'll just do a general guideline.

Ingredients:

Firm, ripe peaches

White wine

Mascarpone cheese, at room temperature 

1/4 cup white sugar

1/2 tsp dried lavender buds 

Blend the lavender with the sugar or grind in a mortar and pestle. Halve the peaches neatly and take out the pit using a little knife. Sprinkle peach halves with the lavender sugar. 

Heat a cast iron pan on medium heat until pretty hot. Spray with coconut oil. Lay peaches cut side down for about 5 minutes without moving them. You want them to be a nice brown color on the edges. Alternatively grilling them would be amazing. Flip over the peaches with a spatula and cook for another 2 minutes. Add a splash of white wine and let cook down for another minute. Now you have a delicious syrup to serve with the peaches.

Serve the peaches with their natural syrup, a sprinkle of extra lavender sugar, a tablespoonful of mascarpone for each peach half, and one crumbled cookie for each peach half. Done. Easiest summer dessert.

Currant Tart

The first time I had currants was working at Garden Dreams. We had a couple bushes at the farm. I had no idea the berries were edible or better yet, delicious. They're really tart but paired with creamy coconut and sweet almonds they are perfect. The recipe for the almond tart came from this shortbread recipe. 

I made this on a weekend when my sister and I stayed at home alone. We ate lots of ice cream and watched the Lizzie McGuire movie. Ya!

Red Currant Tart

Crust:

2 cups almond flour
1/2 cup softened butter

1/3 cup confectioners’ sugar
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 tbsp honey
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Toppings:

1 bunch red currants

1/2 cup dark chocolate chips

Cream:

1 can full fat coconut milk, chilled overnight in fridge

1 vanilla bean, scraped

1/3 cup powdered sugar

To make crust:

Place dried ingredients in a food processor and blend. Add wet ingredients and blend again. Mixture will be soft. Also you can do this all by hand.

In a 10 inch pie pan, spread out the cookie mixture on the bottoms and sides just like a pie crust. It's very sticky so you can use a greased spatula or just your hands to help you along. Cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 1-2 hours.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Remove plastic wrap and prick dough with a fork all over. Bake for 15-20 minutes until crust is a nice golden brown color. 

Let cool on a rack for 5 minutes. Sprinkle chocolate chips over the crust and let melt for 5 more minutes. Carefully spread chocolate with a spatula over the bottom of the crust. Let crust cool completely, then chill in refrigerator until ready to serve.

To make coconut whipped cream:

Chill ceramic bowl and beaters in freezer for 10 minutes. Remove can of coconut milk from fridge. Scoop out the cream on top and place into chilled bowl. Beat on low increasing speed until medium. Add in vanilla bean caviar and powdered sugar gradually. Increase speed up to high until the mixture looks like whipped cream! 

Pour into chilled tart.

Top with currants. I kept the fruit on the vine- people can pick them off as they eat. It's prettier that way.

Tart keeps in the fridge for 1-2 days.

Oatmeal Pancakes

These oatmeal pancakes are the basis of almost every brunch I make. Back in pharmacy school, my friends would make a batch after our exams (which were at 7 am!). It would be a way of celebrating having our lives back if only until the next exam. These were ladies who joined me in many adventures, bikes tours, and cooked meals. Also lots of studying that didn't get done. And sleeping in class. The recipe is from an old school cookbook, but I couldn't find it online. Does this count as citing my source? Am I the worst? Probably. 

I had the recipe written on the back of my pharmacology notes with doodles and stickers from my friends. I'll keep it forever but just in case of zombie apocalypse, etc I'll have it on the internets just in case. Just kidding, I have it memorized. 

This is my adaption. The recipe does great with substitutions. Just don't use gluten free flour. They will turn into rubber. Trust me. You can double, triple, etc the recipe.

Other substitutions/additions:

For the flour:

1/2 cup buckwheat + 1/2 cup whole wheat flour

1 cup white whole wheat flour 

For the sugar:

1/3 white sugar for brown sugar

Oats:

Same amount of instant oats

Buttermilk:

1 1/3 cup milk + 1 tsp vinegar

Same amount of thinned plain yogurt

Egg:

Flax egg instead

Chia egg instead 

Additions:

1/2 cup blueberries

1/2 cup chocolate chips

2 tbsp flax seed

Makes 9 medium pancakes

1 cup spelt flour

1/2 cup + 2 tbsp rolled oats

1/2 tsp baking soda

1/2 tsp sea salt

1 tsp cinnamon 

1/3 cup brown sugar 

1 egg

1 1/2 cups buttermilk

2 tbsp coconut oil, melted

Mix dry ingredients together in a medium mixing bowl with a whisk. Make a well and pour in wet ingredients. Whisk until just mixed and few lumps remain. Let sit for 5-10 minutes.

Cook over medium heat until golden brown. Keep in oven at 200 degrees until ready to serve.