Sweet Liberty
Independence Day! A day to celebrate freedom! Here’s hoping this post will make you freer to enjoy the holiday by helping to liberate you from the kitchen. For guests dessert is, pardon the pun, the topping on the cake, a sweet ending. For the hosts, it’s often the last hurdle to get over. If the meal is outdoors, that hurdle is higher. In addition to presentation and serving, melting and spoiling become considerations. If you plan a recipe that requires garnishing, labor and timing become problems too. The solution is to have a desert ready to be tabled in advance; if it can hold up for awhile and is easily served, even better.
CAKE is always a reliable choice and one I’m sure you’ve used many times before, make well and have your own favorites. There are, of course, many edible decorations available in craft stores and supermarkets, but if you need something more impromptu or casual, consider buying some corsage tubes from a florist or supermarket. They insert into the cake, and hold water for fresh flowers or just protect the stems of artificial ones, and last for years. As befits an old stand-by, cake offers numerous variations that make serving easy in different situations.
- CUPCAKES have been rediscovered in the past few years. There are special stands and platters that make them appear as cakes, even wedding cakes, and/or showcase them for the individual treats that they are, an individuality that makes them ideal for serving at parties. They can be baked with special goodies in the center and decorated for any occasion.
- I saw a picture of cup cakes arranged on a cookie sheet to replace the usual 4th of July FLAG CAKE. They were all iced in white, some, topped with fresh strawberries to indicate the red stripes and others with blueberries for the star field. Very attractive, easy to serve perfect for leftovers.
- POUND CAKE, store bought, is perfect for those with little time and/or inclination to bake. It makes an easy, attractive dessert in any of these ways:
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1) Slice a 9×5 inch cake lengthwise into three layers, an 8×4 inch one in half. Spread each layer with canned icing, and cover with fresh fruit. If the cake is to be refrigerated until serving, you can use whipped cream or topping, not icing. Replace layers in order. Save some fruit to garnish the top.
2) Cut cake in 1 inch slices and lightly toast them on both sides. Sprinkle cut fresh fruit with sugar and allow to steep until juice is rendered. Serve fruit, with juice, over cake slices and top each with ice cream, whipped cream or whipped topping depending on weather. Can be plated ahead or served buffet style.
3) Toast only one side of each cake slice. Cover one untoasted side with icing and/ or cool whip, top with fruit, and close with the other. Cut in half and serve as finger sandwiches
4) NOTE: An excellent filling, and/or icing, can be made from mixing (1) 8oz tub whipped topping with 8oz. cream cheese. Flavoring can be added to this, and it allows for using jam in place of fresh or frozen fruit. Also note that frozen fruit may require sweetening. This also holds up well in warm weather.
5) Angel Food cake can be used in all the ways listed above, but it’s better when it’s a day or so old and not quite as moist s freshly baked.
PIES, especially fruit ones, are always safe bets in warm weather. Custard pies containing eggs can be risky in the heat, and frozen ones can melt unappetizingly, but berry or stone fruit pies, tarts and turnovers sail right through. Although welcome all year, colorful fruit pastries are truly alluring table décor during summer affairs. They have other advantages as well. Made from fresh fruit in season, they’re economical. The crusts can be bought, reducing the labor, and they can be made in advance,, and refrigerated, even frozen, and baked up to a day ahead, to save time. They can be served plain, dusted with sugar, or, if the occasion allows, accompanied by whipped cream or served a la mode.
- I’ve learned, when making pastry dough for dessert, to mix in up to ¼ cup sugar. If using purchased crusts, use confectioners’ sugar in place of flour to roll them.
- To make TARTS, use a round cookie cutter to cut appropriate sized circles in the dough and fill tart pans or custard cups, as you would a pie pan.
- TURNOVERS are easier still. Simply cut the dough in circles or squares, usually from 4 to 6 inches, fill with 1 to 2 tablespoons of the fruit base, moisten the edges to seal, fold the pastry over the fruit, press the edges, put on a cookie sheet and bake.
- A RUSTICA, or GALETTE, is the easiest type of pie to make. This is a short version of the recipe from my book Dinners with Joy: If making the crust mix 1 1/2 cups flour, ¼ cup sugar, cut in 1/3 cup shortening, add 3 to 4 Tbs. ICE water to form dough, and roll to a 12 inch round. If buying the crust, roll only to 10 inches. Transfer to a parchment or foil covered cookie sheet, or bake in a pizza pan. Depending on size, fill the center with 1 ½ lbs fruit to 1lb. leaving a 2 to 3 inch margin. (Apples pears and peaches should be peeled and sliced. Plums can be halved and stoned.) Dot fruit with ½ Tbs. butter. Sprinkle with 1 Tbs. cornstarch, 1 Tbs. sugar and ½ tsp lemon juice. Carefully fold edges of pastry up around filling, pleating as you go. The edges can be brushed with cream or egg white and sprinkled with sugar as decoration. Bake at 400 degrees for 30 mins. Cool on sheet. Preferably on a wire rack. This can be moved to a plate for serving, but as the name implies, it’s a “rustic” or casual pastry, and I like to bake it and serve it in a pizza pan.
- FRUIT PIZZA: Make dough as instructed above, increasing sugar to ½ cup and shortening to 2/3 cup. If buying, purchase a roll of sugar cookie dough, not pie dough. Roll dough to fit a pizza pan, prick several times with a fork and bake as for cookies, 350 degrees for 10 to 12 mins. until lightly browned, or as directions on package state. Cool completely in pan. Raw fruit is to be decoratively arranged over the crust, so the amount you will need depends on the chosen fruit, roughly about 1 ½ lbs. My favorite is a combination of strawberries and blueberries, but kiwi and peach slices work, as well as do many others. Top with a glaze made from a clear jelly, apple or current, melted with 1 Tbs. water per ¼ cup jelly. For a thicker glaze dissolve ¼ tsp. cornstarch in 1 Tbs. water per ½ cup jelly, which is the amount I use for one of these. Boil until clear and spoon over the fruit. Chill until completely set. Optionally pass whipped cream.
MERINGUES are a favorite of mine at any time, because they’re so user-friendly. The recipe is already on this blog. As I wrote in that posting, they’re great served as COOKIES, or used as toppings, but they can also be cooked in ROUNDS. Use plates to draw templates on waxed paper. The rounds can be layered like cake separated by different fillings. I recently learned to make them into NESTS by adding 1 Tbs. flour and 1 Tbs. cornstarch to just 3 egg whites per cup of sugar. Shape them on a template, using the back of a fork to raise the sides into nests. Bake at 250 degrees for 60 mins. Leave in oven for 30 mins. then cool on a wire rack. Store in a dry place until ready to use, up to a week. Fill centers with fresh fruit and serve with whipped cream, or topping, on the side. I would imagine these can be made in individual portions, and would be most attractive. Judging by the timing to cook basic meringues, I don’t think there would be much adjustment to the directions either. Something you might want to try.
SUMMER PUDDINGS are a very old-fashioned seasonal dessert. Still popular in England these“puddings” are famous for holding up well in hot weather. They’re economical too, because they’re perfect for using up leftover fruit and older bread.
- Choose a sturdy 1 ½ quart bowl – then you will need:
1) 6 or more ½ inch slices of French or Italian bread, crusts removed-enough to well line the bowl, plus to cover the top. If bread is fresh, dry it in a warm oven until firm, but several days old is fine
2) 3 cups frozen or fresh MIXED berries- strawberries, blueberries, blackberries raspberries
3) ½ to ¾ cup sugar-depending on natural sweetness of berries
4) 1tsp. Balsamic vinegar – optional
Line the bowl with bread, trim and reserve overhangs. Combine sugar and fruit in a pan. Bring to a simmer and cook about 5 mins. until juices flow. If using frozen fruit, this will take about 10 mins. Cool and ladle the fruit into the bowl, reserving some of the juice. Cover the fruit with the extra pieces of bread, then, first placing plastic wrap over it, cover the bowl with a plate which fits the top. Weight the plate down with a can or other suitable object, and chill the pudding overnight. Uncover and unmold by inverting onto a plate, Serve with reserved juices, optionally thickened, alone or mixed with cream or with whipped cream.
I realize that there are, literally, hundreds of wonderful desserts suitable for serving in summer, but this discussion is limited to a few examples of types that are guaranteed to make things easier for the person who is planning and/or hosting an outdoor meal in hot weather. They meet special criteria. They must be:
Affordable
Easy to make
Easy to keep for a few days
Easy to present—no elaborate decorations or garnishing
Easy to serve, plate and eat with a minimum of mess
Stable enough to withstand warm temperatures without changing form
Made from ingredients that will not spoil but remain safe to eat after exposure to a hot summer day.
The idea is to give you tips to lighten the work load, so you can get out and enjoy the occasion as much as everyone else. Here’s to a happy, safe 4th of July!!!!
