Category Archives: Fruit

Apricot Muffins with a Topping of Crunchy Goodness

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Sweet, salty, tender and crunchy -- that's what these apricot muffins are like.

Sweet, gooey caramel with a sprinkle of sea salt.

Skinny jeans with a billowy top.

And the gregarious jock with the shy, bookish girl next-door.

Plain and simple, opposites attract.

Why? Because in the immortal words of Tom Cruise to Rene Zellweger in “Jerry Maguire,” they complete one another.

The same can be said about the best baked goods. If there’s soft, there ought to be crunchy, as well, to provide added contrast and greater interest.

When I decided to bake a batch of muffins the other week, using summer apricots fresh from the farmers market, I knew I wanted the tender treats to sport not only a crunchy top, but one that was both a little sweet and a bit salty.

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Cantaloupe in Cake? You Bet!

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Yes, you can bake with cantaloupe. Who knew!

I’ve enjoyed berries, peaches, plums and all manner of other fruit in baked treats.

But cantaloupe?

Not until now.

Don’t get me wrong. I love that beautiful netted fruit with its sunny orange flesh. But cantaloupe in a cake seemed as farfetched to me as watermelon or honeydew in one.

That is until I spied a recipe for “Cantaloupe Cake (Torta di Melone)” in “Dolci: Italy’s Sweets” (Stewart, Tabori & Chang), of which I received a review copy. The book is by Francine Segan, a food historian and New York City cookbook author. The cookbook boasts more than 125 recipes for Italian specialties such as sweet ricotta crepes, rosemary semifreddo, angel hair pasta pie, and even an unlikely chocolate eggplant dish.

Because the melon chunks are soaked in Asti Spumante, a glass of the Italian sparkler makes a nice accompaniment to the cake.

I couldn’t let a chance to bake with cantaloupe pass by, so I gave it a whirl.

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Fruit Pie Time, French Laundry Luxe Gift Cards & More

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Adorable little cherry pies at Madera restaurant in Palo Alto. (Photo courtesy of the restaurant)

Fruit Pies Around the Bay Area

There are cake people. And there are pie people.

For pie lovers, you can’t ask for a better time to indulge than summer when fresh fruit ones abound.

At Madera restaurant in the Rosewood Sand Hill resort in Palo Alto, get a taste of warm tart cherry hand-pies with a scoop of vanilla bean ice cream ($10).

At San Francisco’s Bluestem Brasserie, enjoy more hand-held pies. Its “Happy Camper Pies” ($9.50) are filled with fruit-herb jam and seasonal fruit. A scoop of vanilla bean ice cream accompanies, as what’s pie without ice cream, right?

Perfect for one -- "Happy Camper Pie'' at Bluestem Brasserie. (Photo courtesy of the restaurant)

Crisp peach fry pie at Prospect restaurant. (Photo courtesy of the restaurant)

Prospect in San Francisco get a load of peach fry pie ($9.50) — little pies fried up crisp with a filling of Blossom Bluff peaches, then garnished with raspberries, tayberries and Bavarian buttermilk ice cream.

Traditionalists will revel in the apple pie with brandied cherries and cheddar tuille ($10) at Epic Roasthouse in San Francisco.

French Laundry and Per Se Launch “Experience Cards”

These may very well be the ultimate gift cards.

No longer will Thomas Keller’s French Laundry in Yountville and Per Se in New York issue issue plain ol’ gift certificates made of paper. Nope, now you can purchase “Experience Cards,” made of sleek metal and sent in an elegant bow-wrapped box.

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Puff Pastry Part II: Slim Apricot Tarts

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Fresh apricots adorn a round of flaky puff pastry.

With a name like that, I wish I could tell you these tarts were the new magic diet food.

If only I could hunker down with one all to myself and become instantly slim.

I wish!

“Slim Apricot Tarts” are majestic with fresh summer apricots. And fruit does a body good, doesn’t it?

Oh sure, the fruit does sit on a platform of buttery puff pastry. And the apricots do get brushed with sweet apricot jam before serving.

But it’s all good, isn’t it?

It sure tastes that way. The apricots are first par-boiled to get them squishy soft. You remove the pits and peel off the skins (throw them away or nosh on them as you toil away at this task). Then, you place them atop the puff pastry dough to bake.

The recipe is from “Ripe: A Cook in the Orchard” (Ten Speed Press), of which I recently received a review copy. The book is by the wonderful British food writer, Nigel Slater. If you have never experienced his elegant, evocative, winning prose — especially in books like my favorite “Toast: The Story of a Boy’s Hunger” (Gotham) — you are truly missing out.

Apricots from Frog Hollow Farm.

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Full Circle Now Delivers to the Bay Area

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A typical small box of produce box from the new Full Circle delivery service.

Once a week for the past couple of weeks, a box just like the one above has landed on my front porch bright and early in the morning.

Besides organic fruits and veggies, its contents have also included this:

Artisan strawberry jam by Inna Jam.

And this:

Organic firm tofu from Oakland's Hodo Soy Beanery.

And this:

Raw milk Italian farmstead cheese.

All thanks to Full Circle, an organic produce delivery service, which started in Carnation, WA, and just launched in the Bay Area.

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