This month, “You Want Pies with That?” bakers were asked by Natalie of Oven Love to create a pie based on a “Family Favorite” dessert.

Oh, dear.  This was tough.   Why?  Because my mom rarely made the same dessert twice.  I was the primary cookie baker, and I went through a phase where I made chocolate pudding on a regular basis.  But I wouldn’t call those “family favorites.”  We had ONE family favorite, and that was flan.  And I like flan plain – I did not like the thought of putting it in a crust.  The only other thing that my mom made on a regular basis (when we had a peach tree) was peach pie and peach ice cream.

The peaches in the store are pretty bad right now.  So I made one of my current family favorites:  blueberry pie.  I used scraps of leftover dough to make the lattice, and that’s why it looks so awful, but I’m not about to waste good, butter-laden pastry crust.

The Pies with That gang has baked some gorgeous pies this month – go check them out!
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I’ve been traveling, got a headcold, and have been busy with LIFE – you know, the stuff that happens that interferes with baking, cooking, and blogging.  Later today I will post the Banana Cream Pie that the TWD bakers made this week, but I wanted to go back and post the Blueberry Crumb Cake of a couple weeks ago, since I didn’t get a chance to make it then.

I really wanted to make this because coffee cake/crumb cakes are usually easy, pack a big flavor punch, and are well received by my Honorable Husband, Master Chow.  Sihan of Befuddlement chose Dorie’s Blueberry Crumb Cake for TWD a couple weeks ago, and you can find the recipe on her blog, or finally go out and get Dorie’s wonderful book, Baking: From My Home to Yours.

As far as the cake went, I made the whole thing in my food processor.  The one thing you have to be careful about is mixing in the flour – you barely want to pulse it in or you will over mix the batter and get a tough cake.  I increased the lemon zest to that of a whole lemon, and instead of the crumb topping, I substituted an oat topping that I prefer.  Why?  The topping on crumb buns always looks amazing, but I find that they generally have no flavor –  they’re just sweet.  I really liked the depth of flavor that the oats provided on this crumb cake, and so did Master Chow – he asked me to put it on the repeat list!

Be sure to stop by later today for the Banana Cream Pie post.  In the meantime, check out the TWD blogroll to see what others have been up to!

Remember to enter the cookbook giveaway!

*** UPDATE ON MARCH 11, 2009 – WE HAVE A WINNER!!! ikkinlala from Canada!****

This month’s R2R challenge – homemade ricotta – is brought to us by Lauren of I’ll Eat You.  The first time I tried to make it, I discovered that my milk had gone sour, BEFORE THE EXPIRATION DATE, and I hadn’t yet opened the container.  But that is an issue I will take up with my local merchant.

The next time I made it, things worked a lot better, even though I didn’t have the right kind of cheesecloth.  The process is not complicated at all, albeit a little time consuming.  In terms of the end product, what I noticed is how much creamier and sweeter homemade ricotta is from the commercial variety.  Instead of making a savory dish (I had planned on lasagne), I had to think fast.  I’ve been traveling a lot lately, and that has really put a crimp in my cooking.  Oh, and the fact that I was without an oven for about a month.  So, I threw together a light . . . something.  It could be dessert, or it could make a nice light snack or breakfast.  I combined the ricotta with some non-fat yogurt and homemade passion fruit sorbet, then topped the whole thing with frozen blueberries.

The result?  I am shocked to say this was delicious.  The ricotta was slightly sweet, the yogurt was tart, the sorbet was tart and sweet, and the blueberries added some texture and another flavor element.  This was so good, that I’m seriously thinking of eating this on a regular basis.  Thank you, Lauren, for a great pick.  Be sure to enter the giveaway, and check out what others made with their ricotta!

**Update** I forgot to mention that I used lime instead of lemon, and after about a week, the flavor of the ice cream was really, really good, but I still had trouble with the texture.  I plan to try this again, but I’m going to substitute low fat sour cream and half-and-half (light cream) for some of the heavy whipping cream. **

This week, Dolores of Chronicles in Culinary Curiosity chose Blueberry Sour Cream Ice Cream on page 434 of Dorie’s book, Baking: From My Home to Yours. I found some fresh blueberries on sale, and decided to double the recipe, making one small change: I replaced only 25% of the full fat sour cream with low fat sour cream. I also made the galette again to take to a dinner party, and it was polished off in record time!

The verdict? My least favorite recipe to date. Don’t feel bad, folks, I don’t consider this a failure. My husband enjoyed it, and I learned a bit more about what I like in an ice cream recipe. Namely, in a fruit ice cream, I like to taste the fruit. With this recipe, I was overwhelmed by the cream, sour cream, and the grease slick they left on my lips and the roof of my mouth, which is exactly why I don’t like Cold Stone Creamery brand ice cream. So, if you DO like really rich ice cream like Cold Stone, this is a recipe for you!

For the recipe, check out Dolores’s blog. To see how everyone else faired, go to the TWD blogroll.

Pie is one of my favorite desserts, and blueberries are one of my favorite fruits.  This pie was a winner – thank heavens I cut the recipe in half, or there’s no telling the caloric damage that would have been done!

I did make a few changes, besides cutting the recipe in half: I used frozen blueberries, because the fresh ones around here are terrible, and cut back on the sugar a bit. I completely forgot to sprinkle the breadcrumbs on the crust bottom (my bad). I couldn’t find my shortening (which I use maybe once a year), so I substituted low fat cream cheese. Finally, I made a two crust crostata and baked the whole thing on a Silpat-lined baking sheet.

The result? Pretty darn amazing. The pie actually tasted . . . fried. Oh, lordie, it was so good. I also liked that, after letting the pie rest for an hour before I cut into it, no runny filling! And for you pie bakers out there, Dorie’s crust recipe is quite generous – you will not find yourself with too little dough to fill the pie plate, as is often the case.

Thanks to Amy of South in Your Mouth for this week’s selection. You can find the full recipe at her blog, or on pages 361-363 of Dorie Greenspan’s book, Baking: From My Home to Yours. And for the full Tuesdays with Dorie blogroll, see here.

This week, Beth of Our Sweet Life chose Mixed Berry Cobbler on pages 416-17 of Baking: From My Home to Yours. All I had were frozen blueberries (I just got back from a trip, so the cupboard was a bit bare), so it turned out to be a blueberry, not mixed berry, cobbler.

I made mini cobblers, brushed the crust with half-and-half, sprinkled it with cinnamon and sugar, and baked it a tad too long because I forgot to set the timer, but it turned out to be delicious. I mean, really, how can you go wrong with blueberries?

For more wonderful creations, check out the TWD blogroll. Sorry about the short post, but I’m still a bit jet lagged!

Like many out there in the culinary blogosphere, I have an overburdened bookshelf, creaking under the weight of all the cookbooks I fully intend to use, but rarely get around to doing so. One of my reasons for starting this blog was to pull some of these tomes down and take them for a test drive.

The winner this month? The Williams-Sonoma Collection: Muffins (Williams Sonoma Collection), by the wonderful and prolific author, Beth Hensperger. It’s a little book, but the recipes are clear, easy to follow, and obviously thoroughly tested because they work. There’s a picture for every recipe, which makes it even more fun to read the book. I always wonder why publishing houses skimp on food photography, when a little more effort in that direction would help the book fly off the shelves!

The book is divided into six categories: Classics, Fruit Muffins, Vegetable Muffins, Savory Muffins, Coffee Cakes, and Quick Loaf Breads. I made the Spiced Apple Coffee Cake you see at the top of this post, as well as the Blackberry Muffins (for which I substituted blueberries and orange zest, and they turned out fantastically well).

I didn’t have cream cheese on hand for the coffee cake, so I substituted Neufchatel with no problems. When I put the batter together, it appeared to be a mass of apples, and I wondered where the “cake” part would come in. I shouldn’t have worried! Here is the golden goodness:

The cake was intensely flavorful, and so moist that I could eat it frozen (and I did), and it still had a soft texture. It froze very well, retaining all its flavor and a pudding-like texture. Dang, I just made myself hungry again. To freeze, I recommend wrapping in plastic wrap, then foil, then placing in a freezer storage bag. The original recipe includes a vanilla glaze, which I eliminated because the finished product was sweet enough.

I also tried the luscious blackberry muffin recipe, but substituted blueberries, and orange zest for the lemon zest. Master Chow loved these. They didn’t hold up quite as well in the freezer, but I suspect that may because I didn’t wrap them in foil, a mistake that I won’t repeat.

The recipe called for a whopping 2 cups of blueberries, but there was enough batter to hold them together well. The orange was a wonderful complement to the berries, and each muffin was topped with a walnut crumb mixture. Delicious! Tonight, I’m going to try either the Polenta Muffins with Fresh Herbs, or the Tomato and Goat Cheese Muffins. Hhhm. Decisions, decisions!

One final note: if your spices are old, do yourself a favor and treat yourself to some new ones. It will make a world of difference in your baking!

Spiced Apple Coffee Cake
Adapted from The Williams-Sonoma Collection: Muffins (Williams Sonoma Collection)

Makes one 9-inch cake

1-3/4 cups all purpose flour
1-1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/4 tsp. salt
3 tart cooking apples, such as Granny Smith, about 1 lb., peeled and cored
2 Tbsp. strained fresh orange, lemon, or apple juice (I used orange)
1/3 cup firmly packed light brown sugar
1-1/2 tsp. ground cardamom
1 tsp. ground cinnamon
1/2 cup unsalted butter, room temperature
8 oz. Neufchatel cheese, room temperature
1-1/2 cups granulated sugar
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract
2 large eggs, room temperature

Preheat oven to 350 F (180 C). Thoroughly grease and flour a 9-inch square baking pan, or a 9-inch round spring form pan. This is a very wet batter, and if you slack off on this step, a lot of your cake will end up sticking to the bottom of the pan!

In a bowl, stir together the flour, baking powder, and salt.

In another bowl, toss the apples with the juice. In a third bowl, stir together the brown sugar, cardamom, and cinnamon. Add to the apples, toss to coat, and set aside.

In another bowl, using an electric mixer set on medium, cream the butter, Neufchatel cheese, granulated sugar, and vanilla until light and fluffy. Add the eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition.

Add the dry ingredients in two or three increments, beating well until just smooth. Don’t over beat the batter. Using a spatula, gently mix in the apples, just until they are incorporated. You want things to be mixed, but not over mixed, or you will have a tough cake.

Spoon the batter into the prepared pan, and bake for 60-70 minutes. A toothpick inserted into the center of the cake should come out clean. Cool on a cooling rack for about 5 minutes, then carefully remove the cake from the pan.

Enjoy!