Stephanie's Fruit Pizza (Dessert)

This recipe comes from one of my students who is an awesome cook. Ever since watching Jamie Oliver's video on superb salads, she has made her own salad dressings for lunch. She has tried out her own oreo truffles. Most recently, she brought this wonderful dessert to a shared meal. It was wonderful because it had a little bit of sugary sweet (from the 'crust') with the rest of the flavor from the fruit.

This dessert would work well with many kinds of fruit, as long as they are firm, like kiwi, apples, or bananas. Watery fruit such as peaches or oranges would not be good.

Ingredients

• 1 package premade cookie dough (usually in the refrigerated section)
• vegetable oil spray
• one 13.5 oz tub of cream cheese fruit dip, such as T. Marzetti brand
• 1 quart fresh strawberries, sliced
• 1 pint fresh blueberries
• 1 pint fresh blackberries
• 1 pint fresh red raspberries

Directions

1. Preheat oven according to temperature on cookie dough package.
2. Very lightly, spray your pizza stone or cookie sheet.
3. Roll out sugar cookie dough into one large pizza size circle.
4. Bake according to package directions.
5. Once cookie 'crust' is completely cool, spread most / all of the fruit dip onto your cookie.
6. Evenly spread your fruit topping over the entire cookie.
7. This pizza can be covered with aluminum foil and placed in the fridge to be served later in the day if needed.

Goat Cheese and Grape Crostini

Looking through my recipe binder, I found a picture of crostini topped with grapes. There was no recipe with it, but I couldn't resist giving them a try. I made a big batch for appetizers at a dinner party and they had disappeared by the time dinner was ready.

My favorite part about this recipe is the combination of hot and cold. Your teeth sink into a warm piece of toasted bread topped with soft melted cheese, but the grapes are still cool with a different kind of crunch. I also like the balance of sweet and salty. If you're not a fan of goat cheese, you might consider making these with another spreadable soft cheese, like brie. Or if you are feeling adventurous, you could try one of the soft cheeses on this list.


Ingredients

• most of 1 baguette or French loaf, sliced into rounds
• 8 oz. soft goat cheese
• freshly ground pepper
• 1/4 bunch flat leaf parsley, chopped
• red seedless grapes, halved

 Directions

1. Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
2. Smear each baguette round with goat cheese, then place on large cookie sheet with sides. 
3. Sprinkle crostini with pepper, then parsley.
4. Bake at 425 degrees for 8-12 minutes, until goat cheese is softened and bread is barely toasted.
5. Remove from oven. As crostini are cooling, top each round with a few grape halves.

Rhubarb Crisp

Crisp, crumble, cobbler: what's in a name?

For this dessert, I didn't want to fuss with a pie crust, but did want some oats involved. My trouble revolved around what to search for: which name included oats? Luckily, I found a helpful article on Gourmet.com that articulates the differences. The answer: crisp is the American name for a fruit dessert with a crumbly topping that often includes oats. (Crumble is its British equivalent.) Upon finding this information, I was able to get to work.


I hope you enjoy what I consider to be a perfect spring dessert: the tartness of rhubarb is scaled down during the baking process (and the addition of sugar, of course). The result is a somewhat messy but sweet crisp with only a bit of bite.

Recipe adapted from Simply Recipes.

Filling Ingredients

• 5 1/2 cups rhubarb, cut into 1/4" slices
• 1 1/4 cups sugar
• 1/4 cup flour
• 1 tsp vanilla
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp ground cardamom
• 1/4 tsp ground ginger

Topping Ingredients

• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup oats
• 1 stick (1/2 cup) salted butter, cut into small pieces
• more cinnamon for dusting

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 375 degrees.
2. Mix filling ingredients together (rhubarb, sugar, flour, vanilla, and spices). Pour filling into 13x9 dish.
3. In another bowl, mix topping ingredients (flour, oats, and butter). Using your fingers, squish the butter into the flour/oats until it is spread throughout.
4. Pour oat mixture on top of rhubarb filling. Sprinkle a little cinnamon on top.
5. Bake at 375 degrees for 45 minutes.

Peach Mango Crostini

The other day, Dan the Man and I headed to the store for inspiration. We decided to purchase whatever produce looked good to us and would figure out something to make with it.

The result: a snack dinner involving fresh fruit and cheese. It was too hot to eat a heavy meal so I was pleased with the outcome: a cute topping (each ingredient was chopped into small cubes) and a bright taste that I really enjoyed as a summer snack.

You can refer back to my post on Brie, Pear, and Brown Sugar Crostini for a clarification on bruschetta vs. crostini if you'd like a refresher on your Italian vocabulary.

Any fresh bread will work for this. My favorite for crostini is baguette, but good French bread will do (that's what you see in the picture), as will the wider Italian bread in a pinch.

Ingredients

• 1 peach, chopped into small pieces
• 1 mango, chopped into small piece
• 5-7 fresh mint leaves, chopped finely (fresh basil would also work)
• 8 oz. ball of fresh mozzarella, chopped into small pieces
• loaf of baguette, French, or Italian bread, sliced into desired size pieces

Directions

1. Mix peach, mango, mint, and mozzarella in a bowl. Let sit for at least 5 minutes to allow flavors to meld.
2. Spoon onto bread slices.
3. Optional: Place crostini on cookie sheet and broil for 1-2 minutes, just enough for mozzarella to melt.

Comments

The peach flavor stood out more than the mango did; you could add another mango if you wanted it to be the dominant flavor. I would also recommend cutting each bread slice in half if you want the crostini to literally be bite-sized, which would make them a little neater to eat.

We ate this primarily as is (fresh), but also tried a few warmed and the mozzarella was delicious. The heat also made the peach flavor sweeter. I'd definitely recommend these warmed!

Strawberry Crisp

After days of frozen pizza, ramen noodles, and boxed macaroni and cheese (which is something I may or may not have experienced recently), there comes a time when one needs to create something beautiful. Something from real ingredients. Something involving strawberries. So I tried out this recipe from Razzle Dazzle Recipes.

This strawberry crisp is incredibly easy, as the bottom crust and top crust are from the same mixture. 

P.S. I bought two pounds of strawberries but after, ahem, "testing" a few, might have ended up with only a pound and a half to actually bake with. Purchase at your own risk.

Ingredients

• 1 cup rolled oats
• 1 cup flour
• 1 cup brown sugar 
• 1/2 cup butter (equal to 1 stick), room temperature
• 1/3 cup diced nuts (optional) (I used walnuts; almonds or pecans might be good too)
• 1 1/2 to 2 lbs fresh strawberries, sliced
• 1/2 cup sugar

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
2. Grease an 8x8 pan.
3. In a medium sized bowl, mix together strawberries and (regular) sugar.
4. In a larger bowl, mix together oats, flour and brown sugar. Using a fork, cut butter into flour mixture until it is even throughout. 
5. Add nuts if desired.
6. Pour about half the flour mixture into 8x8 pan and press evenly to bottom. Add entire strawberry mixture, then spread rest of flour mixture on top and spread around.
7. Bake for about 50 minutes, until mixture has turned golden brown on top.

Comments

I enjoyed the dessert best warmed. If it hadn't disappeared so quickly I would have also liked to try it as a breakfast with a little bit of milk poured over top. If you wanted to make a strawberry rhubarb crisp you could alter this recipe by using only 1 lb. of fresh strawberries and adding 2 stalks of rhubarb, sliced up, and keep the amount of sugar the same.

Brie, Pear, and Brown Sugar Crostini

My roommate from college and I were obsessed with crostini - little snacks with a baguette slice as the base. The only requirements for toppings were taste related - something sweet paired with something salty. We called them "towers" and maybe someday we'll have a cookbook of our tower inventions! For Valentine's Day we had two different trays of crostini as appetizers and this recipe is one of them. It is comprised of two sweets (the pear and brown sugar) and one salty (a slice of soft Brie cheese).

Bruschetta vs. crostini?
Some people interchange the two but it is important to know the difference, especially if you are searching the internet for a certain recipe. Bruschetta is a very specific type of crostini (just as a square is a type of parallelogram - sorry, I'm a math geek!) that is comprised of a tiny toast topped with olive oil, salt, pepper, and diced tomatoes and onions. This word is often misused to describe what is actually crostini. The word crostini is Italian for tiny toasts, so the baguette could have any topping and still be a crostini.

Ingredients (per cookie sheet)

• 1/2 loaf baguette or other long, thin bread, sliced at a diagonal
  
• 1 wedge Brie cheese, cut into small thin chunks
  
• 1 pear, sliced very thinly
• brown sugar
  

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees.
   
2. Place bread slices on a cookie sheet with sides. (The bread can be touching.)
3. Top each slice with a piece of Brie, then a pear, and finally a sprinkle of brown sugar.
4. Bake until brown sugar melts, about 5-7 minutes but sometimes longer.
   

Comments
These were heavenly and disappeared pretty fast! Sometimes they are good as a light dinner if you're feeling like snack-type foods for your meal.

If you dislike brie (I'm not sure it's possible but I've heard that some people feel this way), try finding another soft cheese that is salty but still has a pretty mellow flavor.