Summer fruit, you're making me CRAZY! For the past few weeks I've been on a fruit binge. I'm not proud of it, but I try to be honest with you, my loyal readers. I've been gorging on cherries, strawberries, blueberries, plums, apricots and more... It's just all that luscious juicy fruit in season right now... glistening, jewel-like in the produce aisles, beckoning to me with sweet, sun-ripened deliciousness...
Ahem. Anyway, oddly I only finding myself really wanting to bake during the summertime, as baked goods incorporating fruit are my absolute favorite hot weather treats. Another summertime treat is going to the library. Yep, the library. I loooove wandering about in the library for hours, poking through random shelves and accumulating a pile that I know will never be returned in three weeks. This is how I happened upon the Zuni Cafe Cookbook. In the world of food blogging, the Zuni Cafe Cookbook is highly revered. I've come across soooo many delicious recipes that are punctuated with rants and borderline worship of this cookbook. So when I happened upon it in a search for another Alice Waters tome, I went for it.
The book is very nice, I must say, and there is a wide assortment of dishes that are both tempting and doable. My first foray was Polenta with Fresh Corn, which was delicious the first night; the next night I fried it with olive oil, rosemary and sage...SO GOOD. My second Zuni Cafe foray was a dessert. A very, very delicious dessert that was not very much trouble to make at all. Let me tell you about it.
Shortcake with Summer Fruit (from the Zuni Cafe Cookbook by Judy Rodgers)
Serves 6
There are two preparations for this dish: fruit and shortcakes (and whipped cream).
First, prepare the fruit so that it can lurk, macerate and become the juicy soup that you desire.
Fruit Topping
Ingredients:
3/4 cup light dry white wine, chilled (I used dry riesling)
6 tablespoons sugar (or more if you like things sweeeet)
4 small or 2 large ripe peaches or nectarines (I used two medium peaches)
3 cups mixed ripe berries (I used strawberries, but blackberries, blueberries, raspberries or mulberries would all be delicious...the author suggests olallieberries, loganberries, boysenberries or tayberries... WHAT ARE THOSE?!!?!)
Stir together the wine and sugar in a wide bowl. It should be wide so that all the fruities can bathe equally in this wine/sugar bath. Add more sugar if your sweet tooth is actin' up.
Now here things get interesting. Judy would have you layer the fruit in a specific sequence, going peaches then nectarines then strawbs, then all other berries. There is no explanation for this, but I naturally did not read the instructions thoroughly and threw the strawbs in first, then the peaches. Nothing seemed to go wrong, so do what you want. Just make sure that when you stir them together you do not bruise or break apart the fruit. Be gentle!!!
Tip for peeling peaches: This is pure genius. Judy says to lower the peaches into simmering water, removing after 10 to 15 seconds when the skin has loosened. Slide into cold water and cool, easily peeling off the skin. Amazing!
Tips for chopping strawberries:
Get a SLAP CHOP!!! My boyfriend gave me one for my birthday (along with some other delightful things including dinner at a Spanish restaurant and a Basque cooking class for two!!!) as a joke based on this video, but the hilarious part is...this gadget works! I slapped those strawberries into bits in no time...and cleanup was a snap!
Ok, once the excitement of slap chopping is over...cut peeled peaches in wedges and add them to the bowl. If you don't have a SC, hull and coarsley slice strawberries and add to the bowl.
Remember to gently swirl the fruit into the wine. Cover loosely and leave to macerate for an hour or more at room temp, gently turning the fruit after about 30 min. Use a rubber spatula. Add more wine or sugar to sweeten or de-sweeten.
Ok, so now that you've gotten your fruit drunk on white wine, it's time to really get your hands dirrrty on some shortcakes.
Bakin' Up the Shortcakes
Ingredients for six biscuits:
2 cups all-purpose flour
2 1/2 tablespoons sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
3/4 teaspoon salt
4 tablespoons salted butter, cut into 1/4 inch slabs and chilled
1 cup plus up to 1 tablespoon cold heavy cream
water to brush the tops
Whipped Cream:
1 to 1 1/4 cold heavy cream
sugar to taste
While your fruit is macerating (hahaaaaa), preheat the oven to 375 degrees.
Whisk together flour, sugar, baking powder and salt in a large bowl. Cut and smash the cold butter into the four mixture, until the butter is reduced to flakes the size of cornflakes. This cornflakes size comparison comes from Judy herself, but I never saw cornflakes, but it was clear to me when the butter was smashed enough and the dough became coarse.
Pour in 1 cup of the cream, distributing over all of the flour. Work it in quickly. It will be kind of funky and sticky- if there are really dry spots pour on a bit more cream to bind the flour, but don't worry if it is ragged in some places. It IS biscuit dough after all.
Flour a cool surface (such as a marble countertop) and gently flatten your dough into a roughly rectangular form. Dust it and use your fancy french rolling pin that your mother gave you to roll the dough 1 inch thick. If it's sticking to surfaces, add more flour. Use a sharp(!) knife to cute the dough into six squares. Brush the tops lightly with water.
Place on baking sheet at least 2 inches apart so the biscuits don't steam each other as they bake. Bake until golden brown, about 20-25 min. It's important not to let them underbake or they will become heavyyyy. Cool on a wire rack.
NOW, whip the cream and whip it good. You could do this with a mixer, or by hand with a whisk if you're feeling old school. Add sugar to taste.
Split the biscuit and top the bottom with tasty fruit and wine syrup. Add a healthy dollop of your whipped cream and perch the browned top part on top.
Consume with the fury of a thousand suns.
Enjoy!
