Facelift!

In celebration of spring and gardening and soon upick berries and apples (My favorite time of year!!!)

I changed up the template.

Kayne Micheal and I sat outside on the porch watching people drive too fast and enjoying the lovely weather (chilly and overcast, but not raining!)

My deck garden is once again active and my plants are enjoying being outside i the fresh air. Soon the Tortoise can move to the porch to enjoy the early morning sunshine as well (when I get his pen together again...whoops)

So I am all a twitter to finally start eating local fruits and veggies but only the hydroponic and green house fruits and veggies are available until May.

I am using this calendar: http://www.pickyourown.org/NYharvestcalendar.htm

Thank goodness most intrepid NYS farmers utilize cold boxes and green houses or I would not be able to enjoy my blueberries this AM.

So in celebration of early blueberries, I give you this recipe (one of my favorites) although I admit, I hate to waste blueberries IN something when you ca just eat them by the handful instead..

http://smittenkitchen.com/2008/07/blueberry-crumb-bars/

Blueberry Crumb Bars
Adapted from AllRecipes.com by Smitten Kitchen

Recipes like this make me wonder why I don’t use AllRecipes.com more. After seeing a blueberry crumb bar on another site, I immediately wanted to make them but the first recipe seemed overly fussy. I knew there was a simpler way to do it, and lo and behold, All Recipes had it. Once I swapped the shortening for butter–of course–and dolled it up with some lemon juice and lemon zest, they were just as heavenly as the 176 commenter promised they’d be.

I could imagine easily swapping another fruit or berry for the blueberries–I’m especially thinking something tart like sour cherries or cranberries in the fall (I’d use orange instead of lemon with cranberries). But if you have blueberries on hand, do not miss a chance to make these.

These are easiest to cut once chilled, and store even better in the fridge than they do at room temperature–something unusual for cookies!

Yield: I cut these into 36 smallish rectangles

1 cup white sugar
1 teaspoon baking powder
3 cups all-purpose flour
1 cup cold unsalted butter (2 sticks or 8 ounces)
1 egg
1/4 teaspoon salt
Zest and juice of one lemon
4 cups fresh blueberries
1/2 cup white sugar
4 teaspoons cornstarch

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Grease a 9×13 inch pan.

2. In a medium bowl, stir together 1 cup sugar, 3 cups flour, and baking powder. Mix in salt and lemon zest. Use a fork or pastry cutter to blend in the butter and egg. Dough will be crumbly. Pat half of dough into the prepared pan.

3. In another bowl, stir together the sugar, cornstarch and lemon juice. Gently mix in the blueberries. Sprinkle the blueberry mixture evenly over the crust. Crumble remaining dough over the berry layer.

4. Bake in preheated oven for 45 minutes, or until top is slightly brown. (This took an extra 10 to 15 minutes in my oven.) Cool completely before cutting into squares.

Some notes by Rogue Writer: In an effort to lighten and add more nutrition:
I am a health nut, and though I cannot say for certain that it adds anything I use pure turbinado sugar (unbleached) or organic cane sugar as well as wholewheat flour usually substituting one cup Garam flour for one of the three cups of flour. Also in the topping I mix in 1/4 cup ground flax seeds (I substitute a mashed banana or 1 tbsp ground flax and water for the egg.) Its the flour sugar and butter that have the heaviness so I usually end up halving the butter and using fat free greek yogurt for half...which lends nicely for a crumble, but not so much a bar.

Editors note:

That kitchen mixtress! I told her about my hemming and hawing over the lack of nutrition and amount of fat in the bars I love and she says "Try this tart" I examined ingredients and am happy to say not only are they more nutritious but the fat is decreased and this is SUPREMELY easy to veggetize!

So without furthe ado:

http://smittenkitchen.com/2011/04/blackberry-and-coconut-macaroon-tart/

Blackberry and Coconut Macaroon Tart
Adapted from Super Natural Everyday

My attempt to swap the whole wheat flour with matzo cake meal was only moderately successful, though I’m not sure if it has to do with the baking-unfriendly bread of affliction or the fact that my coconut was “medium” not “fine” as suggested. If you’re trying it with matzo meal, it might be worth it to grind everything together in a food processor and if you need an extra tablespoon of melted butter to pull it together, go for it.

Some long-winded notes about volumes: The original recipe called for an 8×11-inch tart pan, which I did not have, or the equivalent of in volume. I ended using 2/3 of the crust recipe and 3/4 of the filling (2/3, which would have been correct, seemed like too much of a headache with 4 egg whites) to fill a 13.75×4.25-inch tart pan I have (but never use, because no standard recipes work in it!). Instead of suggesting pan sizes you probably don’t have, I’ve done what I should have from the get-go and scaled the whole recipe to 3/4 of the original volume which should nicely fit in a 9-inch round tart pan (with removable bottom) or an 8-inch square cake pan with the understanding that the first bar will probably not come out cleanly! Unless you have an 8-inch square cake pan with a springform or removable bottom, in which case, I’m jealous of how well supplied your kitchen is!

Crust
1 cup plus 2 tablespoons white whole wheat flour, spelt flour or matzo cake meal
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon unsweetened finely shredded coconut
1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon natural cane sugar (I used a coarse Turbinado because I had it on hand)
Generous 1/4 teaspoon fine grain sea salt
6 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted

Filling
1 1/2 cups unsweetened finely shredded coconut
6 tablespoons natural cane sugar or lightly packed light brown sugar
3 large egg whites
6 ounces fresh blackberries, halved (feel free to swap any berry/cherry you can find in season)
1/4 cup pistachios, crushed

Make base: Preheat oven to 350°F with a rack in the middle of the oven. Line the bottom of a 9-inch round tart pan with a removable bottom or an 8-inch square baking pan with parchment. Generously butter parchment and sides of pan.

Combine flour, coconut, sugar and salt in a medium bowl. Stir in melted butter until evenly distributed in dry ingredients. Press mixture firmly in the bottom of the pan to form a solid, flat layer, like a shortbread cookie base. Bake for 15 minutes, or until lightly golden. Remove and set aside to cool for a few minutes while you prepare the filling.

Assemble tart: Stir together coconut, sugar and egg whites. Evenly distribute blackberries across tart base. Using a small spoon or your fingertip, drop little tufts of macaroon filling around the blackberries, allowing them to stay at least partially uncovered.

Bake for 20 to 25 until the peaks of the macaroon filling are bronzed. Let tart cool, then garnish with the crushed pistachios (I pressed mine in just a little bit, so they’d stick better) before slicing into skinny wedges or small squares.

(Taken directly from Smitten Kitchen GO THERE NOW!)

KJ