Grapefruit Bars

I like grapefruit, but I never think of cooking with it because I always figured it was too tart for anything. But I went to an annual Solstice party yesterday and our host made these amazing grapefruit bars. They're like lemon bars, but with grapefruit instead and they were amazing!

It's interesting because when making this concoction, it doesn't look like it's going to make sense. There's not a drop of milk in it, so the crust is this incredibly dry mixture of flour, sugar and butter. But once baked, the butter holds everything together kind of like a graham cracker crust does.

And the taste? WOW! They are pretty sweet, not tart at all. The recipe uses the juice of one large grapefruit and the zest from two grapefruit, but still no tartness whatsoever. I imagine you could change the ratio of things a bit if you wanted a more citrusy flavor, but personally I think they are fantastic just the way they are.

As I'm sure you're aware, grapefruit is an excellent source of Vitamin C, which studies suggest can help to fight off colds, or at least help reduce the intensity and duration of them. And I didn't realize this, but grapefruit's season actually starts in Winter, which means now is the perfect time to grab a few of these and give this a try.

If you are trapped in one of those snow-covered places on the map right now, this is like a little sugary square of Summer right at your sticky fingertips.


INGREDIENTS

2 cups sifted all-purpose flour (if you don't own a sifter, whisking works too)
4 beaten eggs
1/2 cup sifted confectioner's (powdered) sugar
1/3 cup grapefruit juice
3 Tbsp grapefruit zest, to taste
1 stick of butter - COLD
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
2 cups granulated sugar
1/2 tsp baking powder

Preheat oven to 350º 

FOR THE CRUST:

Sift (or whisk) together the 2 cups flour and the confectioner's sugar.

Cut in the butter or margarine using one of those pastry cutter/ dough blender thingies, until the mixture clings together. (I cut the butter into about 1/2" pieces first - it should still be fairly cold.) If you don't have a pastry cutter/ dough blender thingie, you can just use two butter knives in a criss-cross cutting motion and it will work just fine.

Press into a greased and floured 13x9x2 inch baking pan. This is going to look weird. Its going to look very dry. Its going to look like you need milk or something. Dont worry. Just follow the recipe. It comes out fantastic.

Bake at 350º for 20 to 25 minutes or until lightly browned.

Remove crust from oven.

FILLING:

Beat together eggs, granulated sugar and grapefruit juice. Sift (whisk) together the 1/4 cup flour and baking powder; stir into egg mixture.

Pour over baked crust. Bake in the 350º oven for 25 minutes longer. Sprinkle with additional confectioner's sugar. Cool. Cut into bars.

Makes 30. Remove bars from pan after cooled; otherwise they will stick.

ENJOY!

More Smores: Part Deux

While shopping the other day, I found these miniature graham cracker crust pie cups. They were cheap and required little prep, so I figured I'd give them a test run in my ongoing attempt to improve on the classic campfire culinary confection known as the smore. 

If you recall from part one, my effort to make the humble smore a bit more fancy-shmancy turned into a sugary failure. Too many marshmallows in a ramekin made the dish too sweet. To correct this and make it a bit more adult, I thought I would try mascarpone cheese blended with honey instead of the marshmallows. Mascarpone is a traditional Italian soft cheese made from cream that is then thickened with a citric or tartaric acid. The result is a smooth, spreadable cheese that's sometimes used instead of butter or Parmesan to thicken and enrich risottos. It's also one of the main ingredients in the Italian desert Tiramisu.

Mascarpone originated in the area between Lodi and Abbiategrasso, Italy, southwest of Milan, probably in the late 16th or early 17th century. The name is popularly held to derive from mascarpa, an unrelated milk product made from the whey of stracchino (a young, barely aged cheese), or from mascarpia, a word in the local dialect for ricotta (although ricotta, unlike mascarpone, is made from whey). 

- Wikipedia

The idea of using a pre-made pie crust in a self-contained little package wasn't in the original plan, but I thought this might improve things.

Here's what I did:

I wrestled these little babies away from a bunch of elves. I brushed some egg white on them and baked them in a 350 deg oven for 5 minutes just to crisp them up a notch.

For the filling, instead of overly-sugary marshmallow, I used 8 oz of mascarpone cheese, blended with 1 tablespoon of honey and a little half & half to thin things out to a frosting-like consistency. 

This gets scooped into a zip-lock bag and worked down to the bottom. I cut the corner of the bag off and was able to pipe the mixture into the graham cups.

I made up a ganache of chopped up dark chocolate and boiling hot half & half. I whisked this together with the bowl sitting on a block of ice to get it to both thicken slightly and incorporate a little air into the mix to lighten it up.

To build the desert, I drizzled the ganache into the cups, piped in the mascarpone, added another little drizzle of chocolate, sprinkled graham cracker crumbs and a few mini dark chocolate chips on the top and called it done. Other than the 5 minute baking of the pie crusts, there's no actual cooking involved. The individual parts can sit in the fridge till its ready and then assembled in minutes, even right at table side if you want. 

The verdict: "Meh." 

I went from too much to too little. The dark chocolate adds a level of bittersweet to the desert that is very pronounced when you aren't competing with the whipped sugar, corn syrup and gelatin of marshmallow. The marscapone/ honey blend was delicious, albeit not quite sweet enough on its own. Perhaps a little more honey would help. Also maybe a drop or two of vanilla.

The other problem was the taste. Because no marshmallow was used and nothing was toasted or torched, it kills any resemblance to the taste of a Smore, which was the goal of this project from the beginning.

On its own, this desert is delicious, but as a substitute to a smore it doesnt cut it.

So back to the drawing board I go.

Peach Cobbler!

Nothing says Summer like Peach Cobbler - but with the freeze that happened in late march, the Hill Country peach harvest suffered. If you notice, those ubiquitous stands that pop up around town this time of year boasting "Fredericksburg  Peaches" are this year hanging signs that say "Texas Peaches" instead.

But not to worry, as most stores are still finding sources of quality peaches - even if they have to be trucked in from distant parts of Texas. Now, I'm all for eating local, but when its Summer, I want my peaches, dammit!

Cobblers originated in the early British American colonies. English settlers were unable to make traditional suet puddings due to lack of suitable ingredients and cooking equipment, so instead covered a stewed filling with a layer of uncooked plainbiscuits or dumplings, fitted together. The origin of the name cobbler is uncertain, although it may be related to the now archaic word cobeler, meaning "wooden bowl" 

-Wikipedia

So here's my version for a great Summer Peach Cobbler (via a recipe from Allrecipes.com):

First, preheat the oven to 425...

Peel and slice 8 peaches into thin wedges (or chunks, since its pretty impossible to wedge the whole peach.)

To peel the skins, blanch the peaches by submerge each one in boiling water for about 45 seconds, then plunge them into an ice bath. the skins should come right off.

Save the pits that have peach still clinging to it (I'll explain this later)

Add 1/4 cup of white sugar, 1/4 cup of brown sugar, 1/4tsp cinnamon, 1/8tsp nutmeg, 1tsp lemon juice, and 2tsp cornstarch. toss this mixture together till the peach chunks are coated wtih the sugary slurry. 

Pour the peaches into a 2qt baking dish and bake in the oven for 10 minutes. This helps make the peaches softer and converts even more of the fruit sugars.

While the peaches are cooking, mix the dry ingredients: 1 cup of flour, 1/4 cup white sugar, 1/4 cup brown sugar, 1tsp baking powder, and 1/2tsp salt.

Then cut 6 tablespoons of cold unsalted butter into the dry stuff until its the texture of coarse meal.

Add about 1/4 cup of boiling water and combine everything together.

Remove the peaches from the oven and drop spoonfuls of the batter mix over the top. 

Make up a topping with 3 tablespoons of white sugar and 1tsp of cinnamon and sprinkle over the entire cobbler.

  

Bake in the oven about 30 minutes until the topping is golden brown. About 10 minutes in, the smell of peaches and sugar will begin wafting through the kitchen. Be prepared for this. You will need to fight off the hungry hoard of people that will start drifting into the kitchen. I recommend handing them those peach pits that you saved from before. It's a fun little activity that should buy you some time.

Once finished,  serve this into bowls with your favorite ice cream.

FULL DISCLOSURE:  In making the cobbler for these pictures, I accidentally added a tablespoon of baking powder instead of a teaspoon. As soon as I dropped this amount from the measuring spoon, it hit me that it was the wrong quantity. Like slow motion I watched - unable to do anything - as the white powder plopped into the bowl with the other white ingredients in a motley melange of fail. Immediately my geek brain kicked in and I started wondering what would happen. Baking powder is a chemical leavening agent - a mixture of alkali and acid that cause a release of carbon dioxide gas in the batter. This carbon dioxide forms bubbles that allows the dough or batter to rise. But would adding too much cause a foaming mess in the oven? Would anyone even know?

Immediately I started making excuses. (It was the cat! I was distracted!) However I'm not above going back in with a spoon and scooping out the excess powder.

In the end, the batter came out fine. Perhaps a little lighter than originally anticipated, but definitely not a problem.

Just wanted you all to know.

Enjoy!