Monday, August 17, 2009

It's All About Embellishments

I found an absolutely divine Cobbler recipe on Joy the Baker's blog. It's for Nectarine and Cream Cobbler. (My friend Sue at Hen Pecks is going to love this, since as far as she's concerned nectarines are evidence that God has never abandoned us.) I had company coming for dinner on Sunday and decided this would make the perfect dessert. However, I made a few adjustments to suit what I think is evidence that God is always near: Peaches. I'm a peach girl, much more than a nectarine girl. So I decided to substitute peaches for the nectarines. I had one remaining bag of frozen peaches from last year's harvest. However, in the interest of full disclosure, I didn't really like the consistency of the dessert with the frozen peaches. I decided to make the dish again on Monday, but this time use fresh fruit.

I ran to the store and bought a few peaches. They're not quite in season, but they were good enough. Additionally, since I have an appointment tomorrow morning to go to a 'pick your own' berry farm and get raspberries and blackberries, I needed some motivation to get me ramped up for the hard labor camp I've enrolled in. So I decided to throw in some blackberries as well. Every once in a while I have strokes of brilliance. (It worked. I am now very motivated to harvest berries by the sweat of my brow so that I can have Blackberry Souffles, Raspberry Syrup, White Chocolate Mousse with Fresh Berries and Chocolate Raspberry Cheesecake in the coming month.)

The final touch, however was to use cinnamon whipped cream to really set this dish off. And it did. I knew it would as soon as I dipped my finger into the newly-whipped Nirvana to taste test it. Being the responsible baker and hostess that I am, I told my daughter to commandeer the whipped cream that very instant before I took a super-sized spoon and simply had my way with the whole bowl. I told her that no matter how hard I cried, begged, thrashed around or threatened her, she was not to give me back the bowl. Talk about good parenting gone bad. Either that girl is phenomenally obedient or she is just plain heartless. She was not moved in the least by my desperate pleas for just one more spoonful. Of course, the upside is there was enough whipped cream for everyone to enjoy on their Peaches and Blackberry Cobbler.

Cinnamon Whipped Cream
2 C heavy whipping cream
3/4 C powdered sugar
1 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp vanilla

Combine all ingredients in a medium mixing bowl. With a hand mixer, whip on high speed until the cream is the desired consistency.

1 comment: