Freezing Fruit

The International Counselor wanted to know about freezing fruit. I have not thought about it, but here it goes.

I usually buy more fruit than we can eat, as it all looks so good. For peaches and strawberries I usually freeze the excess. For raspberries, apricots, and cherries I make preserves to put on toast in the morning (or inside a quesadilla).

I clean and cut up the fruit before it is too ripe. I put the fruit in plastic bags designed for freezing- that keeps the freezer burn out. When I am ready to use the fruit, I take it out of the freezer and place the bag in a bowl or on paper towels (there will be condensation). The fruit is also good in smoothies- you can pack your little bags for smoothies too.

Luckily for me, my freezer consists of two drawers, so it is much easier to store things. For the freezer that things get thrown into, you may want a rectangular Tupperware container to keep your bags of fruit in so that they do not wander away.

Peach Cobbler

Some people are already enjoying their summer vacation. My friend, Lucy who got me started on this blog, has asked for a Peach Cobbler recipe. It is below. The peaches in summer are fantastic, so we often cut them up and freeze them so we can also enjoy peach cobblers in the winter. You can add additional fruit too, not too much at once though. No picture yet, Lucy will need to send me one!

Peach Cobbler

This is a basic recipe from my mom; I do not know where she got it. And I am doing this from memory, which should be okay; however I have been working on reports and grades.

Buttered 9 X 13 inch rectangular pan
Peaches, sliced- enough to comfortably cover a 13 X 9 inch pan 3 -5 sliced peaches deep
1-2 tablespoons lemon, lime or liqueur (I like Grande Marnier)

1 stick or half a cup or 4 ounces butter, softened but NOT mushy falling apart soft
1 cup firmly packed brown sugar- in Turkey I use white sugar and two tablespoons
molasses as we have no brown sugar
1 cup flour
1 teaspoon cinnamon
½ teaspoon freshly grated nutmeg

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F, or 180 C. Place sliced peaches in the pan, squeeze a little lemon or lime or liqueur over the peaches.

Place butter, brown sugar, flour, cinnamon and nutmeg in a food processor. Pulse until it is like crumbs. Cover the peaches with the topping, spread it evenly.

Cook in the oven until the peach juice is bubbling (about 45 minutes to an hour depending on your oven). It should make the house smell good too. Goes great with home-made vanilla ice cream!

Chocolate Glazed Hazelnut Mousse Cake

This is actually very easy to make and takes less than an hour. It is delicious and improves with good cream.

Chocolate-Glazed Hazelnut Mousse Cake
Gourmet February 2006

For shortbread base
• 2 tablespoons hazelnuts, toasted and skins rubbed off.
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• ½ cup all purpose flour (no sin stuff)
• ½ stick ( ¼ cup) unsalted butter
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch process cocoa powder (don’t know used Cadbury that I found in fridge)
• teaspoon salt

For mousse
• 1 teaspoon unflavoured gelatin
• 3 tablespoons cold water
• ½ cup chocolate hazelnut spread such as Nutella
• ½ cup mascarpone ( ¼ pound)
• 1 ½ cups chilled heavy cream
• 2 tablespoons unsweetened Dutch-process cocoa powder
• 3 tablespoons sugar

For Ganache
• ¼ cup plus 1 tablespoon heavy cream
• 3 ½ oz fine quality bittersweet chocolate
8-inch (20 cm) spring form pan

Make shortbread base:
Put oven rack in middle position and preheat oven to F (180 C). Invert bottom of spring form pan, then lock on side of pan and line bottom with round of parchment paper.
Pulse hazelnuts and sugar in a food processor until nuts are finely chopped. Add flour, butter, cocoa, and salt and pulse just until a dough forms.
Press dough evenly onto bottom of spring form pan with your fingers (what if I had said toes?). Prick all over with a fork, then bake until just dry to the touch (about 18 to 20 minutes). Transfer to rack to cool completely, about 30 minutes. Remove side of pan and slide out parchment from under shortbread, then reattach side of pan around shortbread base.

Make Mousse while shortbread cools:
Sprinkle gelatin over water in a 1 to 1 ½ quart heavy saucepan and let stand until softened, about 5 minutes. Heat gelatin mixture over low heat, stirring, just until gelatin is melted, about 2 minutes. Whisk in Nutella until combined and remove from heat.
Whisk together mascarpone and chocolate hazelnut mixture in a large bowl. Beat together cream, cocoa powder, and sugar with an electric mixer on low speed until just combined, then increase speed to high and beat until cream just holds soft peaks. Whisk one third of whipped cream into mascarpone mixture to lighten, then fold in remaining whipped cream until well combined.
Spoon filling onto shortbread base in pan, gently smoothing top, then chill, covered, at least three hours.

Make ganache and glaze cake:
Bring cream to a simmer in a small heavy saucepan and remove from heat. Add chocolate and let stand 1 minute, then gently whisk until completely melted and smooth. Transfer ganache to a small bowl and cool stirring occasionally, until slightly thickened but still pourable, about 20 minutes.
Run a warm thin knife around inside of spring form pan, then remove side (of pan). Slide cake off bottom of pan and transfer to a serving plate. Pour ganache onto top of cake and spread allowing excess ganache to drip down sides.

Cake without glaze can be chilled up to 2 days.
Cake can be glazed 6 hours ahead and chilled uncovered.