Blueberry and cherry pie

My favorite part of summer? Fresh fruit galore!

I've been stocking up on fresh cherries because well, I love them! And what better to do the other day when it started pouring down outside and I couldn't enjoy my Sunday? Yes, you guessed it right: Ch-ch-ch-cherry pie! And since I had a few leftover blueberries that were threateneing to go bad, I decided to use them up in a beautiful sweet pie!

Here's how I did it.



INGREDIENTS:
- 2 cups of fresh blueberries
- 2 cups of fresh cherries, stemmed and pitted
- zest and juice of 1/2 lemon
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- 2 tbsp cornstarch
- 1 pie crust (click here for a recipe)
- a small piece of butter and a pinch of flour to grease and dredge the dish (not pictured)


RECIPE:
- preheat your oven at 375F
- Pit and stem the cherries, and mix them with the blueberries, lemon zest, juice, cornstarch and sugar and let rest at room temperature until ready to use

- grease the pie dish with butter and dredge with flour, then roll out the pie crust thinly (about 1/8") and place gently in the center of the dish

- scoop the pie filling in the center of the crust and trim the extra dough

- if you are feeling artistic, feel free to use the dough trimmings to decorate your pie

- bake the pie at 375F for about 45 minutes, or until the dough is just golden and the filling is cooked and bubbly

- this delicious fruity, summery and juicy cherry-blueberry pie is best enjoyed warm with a dollop of sour cream or vanilla ice-cream!

Tecate beer and lime cupcakes with a Tequila butter cream frosting

Sunny days and boozy cupcakes... Spring is here and these cupcakes are perfect for a Cinco de Mayo party (should you live in a part of the world that celebrates it) or any party, really!

Do keep in mind that the alcohol in the cupcakes is quite strong, since the tequila is in the frosting and therefore has not been cooked. Definitely not kiddo-friendly, but you can adapt it to an alcohol free recipe; it'll just be a lime cupcake :)

Here's how to make these delicious boozy-bites!


INGREDIENTS (yields 24 cupcakes)
for the cupcake batter:
- 3/4 cups of room temperature unsalted butter
- 2 1/2 cups of AP flour
- 2 tsp baking powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 3 eggs
- 1 cup agave nectar (I used raw agave nectar)
- 1 1/2 cups of Tecate beer (or any light beer -lager, pils- you have on hand; Corona, Sol would work fine too), reserve a few tbsp for basting the cupcakes before frosting
- 1 tbsp vanilla extract
- zest of 1/2 lime (use the remaining zest and juice of the whole lie for the frosting, see below)

for the frosting:
- 3 cups powdered sugar
- juice of 1 lime
- zest of 1/2 lime
- 1 cup of room temperature unsalted butter
- a pinch of salt
- 2-3 tbsp Tequila


RECIPE:
start with the cupcakes
- preheat your oven at 350F
- in the bowl of a standing mixer equipped with the whisk attachment, cream the butter and agave nectar until fluffy

- add the eggs one by one, making sure they are well incorporated before adding the next egg

- then add the vanilla and lime zest, the beer and flour, salt and baking powder alternating between wet and dry ingredients until all is well mixed in

- line a cupcake tray with paper cups and fill 2/3 in with the batter

- bake at 350F for 20 minutes and as soon as they come out of the oven, poke a few times with a tooth pick and brush with beer

Note: the warm cupcakes will soak up the beer and that will keep them moist and full of beer flavor
- let cool completely before frosting
prepare the frosting while the cupcakes are cooling:
- in the bowl of a standing mixer equipped with the paddle attachment, mix all the ingredients until creamy and well blended

- transfer the frosting into a piping bag (with or without a tip for fancy decorations) and frost away!

- decorate with fresh lime zest

Note: as you can see some of my cupcakes were still a little too warm when I iced them and the butter cream just melted :( They were still good though, just not as pretty!
- Enjoy!

Dulce de leche

Nothing simpler than making your own dulce de leche. This deliciously sweet ooey-gooey marvelousness that is dulce de leche can be yours for only 2 dollars, in less than 3 hours!

Also, if you've never had it, you HAVE to try it :)



INGREDIENT(S):
- 1 can of sweetened condensed milk


RECIPE:
- remove the label of the can and rinse it well
- submerge the can, unopened, in a pot of water and bring to a boil (making sure that the water level is always about 1 inch above the top of the can)

- lower the heat and simmer for 90 minutes to 2 hours
- let the can cool before you open it and transfer the milk into a sterilized glass jar; it is now a beautiful golden color and has a gooey creamy texture

- dulce de leche keeps for forever in the fridge, but I'm not sure this has been scientifically proven, since it is litterally impossible not to finish the jar in a few days :/
- you can serve this on toast for breakfast, in yoghurt, with bananas and oatmeal, as a sweetener for coffee, on fresh apple slices,... pretty much any way you'd like! this is such a versatile treat :)

- can you guess how I'm going to have it?

Earl Grey cupcakes

Those of you who follow this blog and/or the Poupette in the Kitchen FB page know that I recently entered a hopefully long-term relationship with Piotr.

We decided to take things slow at first and opted for simple cupcakes. Nothing too fancy, but fun. No pressure :)

I'd been surfing the net in hopes to find a new flavor to play with, and this recipe at Fork and Flower caught my eye. I mean, Earl Grey? Cupcakes? Buttercream frosting? Gimme!


INGREDIENTS (approx. 18-20 regular sized cupcakes):
for the cupcake batter:
- 240g AP flour
- 280g sugar
- 200ml whole milk (I didn't have it, so I mixed 150ml fat free milk and 50ml heavy cream)
- 2 large eggs
- 80g softened butter
- 3tbsp loose leaves Earl Grey tea (I used some high quality from Teavana, but I guess if you only have tea bags, that would work too. Just make sure that you brew it extremely concentrated)
- 1 cup boiling water
- a pinch of salt
- 1 tsp baking powder

for the frosting:
- 4 cups confectioner sugar
- 1 cup of softened butter (2 sticks)
- 1 tsp crushed Early Grey tea (I used the contents of two Tazo tea bags, and crushed it even more with a pestle and mortar)
- a pinch of salt
- a few tbsp of milk to soften the frosting


 RECIPE:
- first things first: brew the loose Earl Grey leaves in the cup of boiling water. Let steep for 30 minutes, until you get a very concentrated brew. It should be about as dark as coffee. You will not use the whole cup of brewed tea, just 3 tsbp.

- preheat your oven to 375F
- mix the flour, sugar, baking powder, salt and butter on low speed with the beater attachment until it resembles very fine fresh bread crumbs

- beat the eggs in the milk and cream and add 3 tbsp of brewed Earl Grey

- resume beating on low speed and gradually add the egg/milk/tea mixture until the batter is smooth

- dress a cupcake tray with cupcake liners

- transfer the batter into a jug to make filling the liners easier and fill about 2/3 up

- bake in the oven at 375F for 18 minutes
- once the cupcakes are cooling on a rack, you can start preparing the frosting
(oops, this one's for me, yeah?)
- whisk the confectioner sugar and butter until powdery

- add the salt, crushed tea and adjust the quantity of milk until you are satisfied with the texture

- proceed to frosting the cupcakes when they are completely cooled

- Enjoy!