CTB 2014 - The Sono Baking Company Cookbook

What is the best thing about summer? Is it the lazy days spent at the beach? Maybe the long nights huddled around a campfire? Is it the picnics spent with family or brunches spent with friends?

Nope, it's not any of those things. It's fruit.

Plain and simple, summer is all about the fruit to me. I can do most of those other things at any time of the year. There are always beaches and brunches, but fresh and local produce is something that you can only get now. I've been stocking my counter with all sorts of stone fruits and berries since I saw the first white peaches at Trader Joes.

I like to make simple desserts during the summer with fresh flavors. I made this peach and raspberry crumble into single serve portions so that I could grab one from the fridge, pop it in the microwave and have a personal dessert. The boyfriend tells me that fruit doesn't belong in dessert, so I had this entire recipe to myself! He doesn't know what he's missing out on.




One Year Ago: Vanilla Soda & Ice Cream Floats
Two Years Ago: Curried Chicken with Coconut Rice
Three Years Ago: Raspberry Truffles
Four Years Ago: Spicy Brownies

Apricot Raspberry Cobbler

Adapted from The Sono Baking Company Cookbook

5 apricots, pitted and sliced into 12 pieces
1 pint raspberries
1/4 to 1/3 cup sugar (depending on how ripe your apricots are, mine were not ripe so I used 1/3 cup)
1/4 teaspoon coarse sea salt
1 1/4 tablespoon cornstarch

1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon kosher salt
6 tablespoons cold butter, cubed
1/2 cup buttermilk (plus extra for brushing)
Sanding sugar

Preheat oven to 375 ºF.

Toss fruit with sugar, salt and cornstarch. Either put into a single 8x8-inch baking pan or 3, 1-cup ramekins.

Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt. Using your hands, blend butter into the flour. It's like rubbing the butter into the flour. Do this quickly so that you don't melt the butter, until you have coarse crumbs of butter. Add buttermilk and mix with a rubber spatula or your hands.

Drop lumps of dough on to the top of the fruit. Don't worry about covering the entire top, the dough will puff up and grow together while it bakes. With any extra dough, form into small mounds on a baking sheet.  Brush the top of the dough with buttermilk and sprinkle with sanding sugar.

Bake cobbler(s) for 30-35 minutes, or until dough is golden brown and fruit is all bubbly.  Bake extra biscuit dough for 15 minutes, or until puffy and golden brown. Serve cobblers warm with vanilla ice cream for dessert or cold for breakfast because it's fruit and that's totally acceptable.