Blackberry-Pear Crumble

Yesterday I made a pear-only crumble for my dear friend Alison's house warming potluck and the general concensus was good. Today I thought I would try it again, but with the addition of blackberries, so I went out picked a large yogurt container's worth of berries this morning (very exact measurements, I know). All of the fruit in the recipe was handpicked by me today (and free!). Crumbles usually call for brown sugar but I am using honey instead, since my Dad and I harvested 40 lbs. of honey from our backyard beehives yesterday. He got two stings, but I avoided it entirely. His advice? Tuck your pants into your socks.

Blackberry-Pear Crumble
Filling:
4 c. pears, peeled and diced
1 to 2.5 c. blackberries (I used the full amount, but it's your call.)
2 tbsp. cornstarch
2 tbsp. butter, melted
2 tbsp. honey
1 tsp. pumpkin pie spice

Topping:
2 c. rolled oats
1/2 c. oat flour
1/3 c. butter
1/3 c. honey
1 tbsp. pumpkin pie spice
1 tbsp. vanilla extract

Preheat over to 350 °F.

Filling: Peel and core pears, then dice them into 1" cubes. Combine diced pears with cornstarch, butter, honey, and pumpkin spice spice until pears are covered. Gently add in blackberries, making sure they are coated, but trying not to mash them up. Tranfer filling into 9x9 pan and gently even out fruit.

Topping: Combine rolled oats, oat flour, pumpkin pie spice and butter, and using fingers or a pastery wire hand pastry blender, chop the butter into pea-sized pieces. Add in the honey and vanilla extract. Pour the topping on to the fruit in the pan, then flatten mixture gently so it is evenly covers the filling. Bake for 40-45 minutes.

Plum Pie

There are hundreds of plums in my backyard, so I decided it was time for a pie. In the background you can see the tree where all the plums came from. I love when things come full circle like that.

My first three pie crust attempts failed. Once because I tried unsuccessfully at using gluten-free flour. The next two failed as well, which baffled me because I used regular flour and two different "No Fail Pie Crust" recipes. After this I tried tasting the the flour I had been using, only to discover it was not flour, but powdered soy milk! I tried for a fourth pie crust and got this beauty. I am so good at making pie crusts.


After the (eventual) success of the first pie, I made a second. This pie had a starry double crust. I got the idea for the crust from Joy of Baking, and they got the idea from Martha Stewart who makes "star spangled" blueberry pie for 4th of July reasons. Please, never make this with a blueberry pie. Unless you're being deeply, deeply ironic.

I used the same basic recipe for Blueberry Pie from Joy of Baking, except that the filling was different.

Plum Pie Filling

• 6 cups plums, pitted
• 3/4 c. honey
• 2 tbsp. lemon zest
• 1 tbsp. vanilla extract
• 5 tbsp. cornstarch
• 1/3 c. water

Cook the plums in water for 10 minutes. Add the honey, lemon zest, vanilla and cornstarch and cook until thickened (about 5 minutes). Allow to cool slightly before pouring into pie crust.

Cherry Snowballs, again.

I made these to take to a VIVA-Raw vegan potluck and it went over well, with all of them disappearing in the first three minutes. I've made these many times, and if you're interest in the recipe, click here.

Cherry Snowballs

I thought I'd do something Christmassy, so this is my take on the your classic date-nut dessert. :)

Cherry Snowballs
makes 20-25

• 1 c. almonds
• 1 c. dates
• 1 c. dried cherries
• 1/3 c. shredded coconut
• 1 tsp. vanilla
• 1/8 tsp. salt

In a food processor I blended all the ingredients together, until the almond pieces were the size of the peanut bits you would find in chunky peanut butter. The mixture stuck together but it was not homogeneous. I used a measuring tablespoon much like a melon baller to divide the mixture into balls. I then rolled the balls between my palms to make them even sphericaller.

I put an additional 1/4 c. shredded coconut into a bowl and rolled the balls in it until there were coated. And that's it! Next time I will omit the coconut in the recipe, so that the mixture is it stickier and coconut adheres better to the outside.