Apricot Budino Dream

I'm late. I'm late.
For a very important date!
No time to say "hello" good bye.
I'm late.
I'm late.
I'm late.......
Said the white rabbit.....Ok perhaps I'm not too late.
There are still fresh apricots in the market and I hope you will be able to find some to make this incredible pudding.

I have been making this apricot pudding for a little while now since I discovered the recipe this summer in a local Italian magazine called, "Sale & Pepe" (Salt and Pepper).
Then the apricots began to rain down and I haven't stopped making it yet.
To me apricots are such an under appreciated fruit.
They're soft and luscious with a tartness that cuts through their sometimes mushy mash that delights and surprises the taste buds alone or with the other usual suspects, like deep rich chocolate  or buttery crisp pastry with a good measure of almonds, just to name a few.
However I digress.
Trust me try this pudding while the apricots last and if you miss them this year, make sure you book mark this recipe to try later.

Budino di Albicocche e Amaretti

Apricot and Amaretti Pudding

6 servings:

500 g apricots, fresh

120 g sugar (10 T)

3 ½ oz / 100 g (1 dl) white wine

1 stick of cinnamon

1 vanilla bean

4 eggs

5 amaretti cookies, crushed into fine crumbs

Wash the apricots and remove the pits.

Place the apricots, 40 g sugar(3 heaping T), white wine, sugar and cinnamon stick, and vanilla bean in a small sauce pan and cook on moderate heat for 30 minutes.

While the fruit is cooking, make the caramel.

Remove from the heat and remove the cinnamon and the vanilla bean.

Blend the fruit with the liquid till al is smooth and homogenous.

In a bowl whisk the eggs, add 80 g (the rest of the sugar) sugar, fruit sauce and amaretti crumbs.

Blend till well mixed.

Caramel;

100 g (½ c) sugar

15 g (1 T) water

In a smooth heavy bottomed sauce pan add the sugar and water.

Turn on the heat, cover with a lid.

Don't get distracted or walk away or most likely you will have burnt caramel.

Watch the pot till the sugar dissolves without stirring it and only slowly shake the pot if need to make the sugar smooth out.

Once the liquid begins to turn a golden caramel color and the desired color is achieved remove from the heat.

Slowly pour the caramel into the bottom of a small smooth bottomed tube pan, tilting the pan so the caramel goes slightly up the sides and center tube. Set aside till filling later.

Pour the fruit egg mixture into the tube pan with the caramel on the bottom. Place the filled pan into a larger pan that you can fill partly up the sides of the tube pan to make a water bath.

Bake the pudding at 350*F / 180* C. for roughly 1 hour or till the pudding is well set.

Remove from the oven and hot water bath and cool till tepid.

Refrigerate the pudding in the refrigerator for at least 2 hours or over night if you like, before serving.

To serve, remove the pan from the refrigerator. Run a palette knife around the edges of the pudding to loosen. Sometimes it also helps to run the bottom of the pan over a warm surface or flame to loosen the caramel.

Place a plate over the top of the pudding pan and gently flip it over.

Tap gently if the pudding needs to be nudged to drop to the plate.

Slice and serve with whipped cream with a drizzle of the caramel from the pan. 

I can hear you smacking your lips now. 

Ciaooooooo!

Baked Pears in Red Wine Sauce

Finally winter has arrived complete with sugar frosted trees, a blanket of snow and temperatures low enough to keep you running to stoke the fire. My mind continues to turn to foods that bring comfort on these winter days. Although February has arrived with long anticipated snow and the days are somewhat longer and lighter, comfort dishes still beckon like a siren calling you to crash on the shore.  
Pears figure in often during these comfort seeking days. I'm a huge fan of poaching pears as well as pear cakes and tarts, but I must say that the simplicity of oven baked in red wine till glisteningly caramelized with a luscious gorgeous thick wine sauce underneath that you might find you will want to make a bit more as it is just that tasty. It's a wonderful drizzling sauce to go over ice cream, plain yogurt with bananas or just about anything that strikes your fancy. 

Caramelized Pears in Red Wine sauce
Pere Caramellate in salsa al vino rosso


Serves 6 
easily doubled


Ingredients:
6  Pears, firm variety like Kaiser or Williams,  medium sized, if organic you won't need to peel them
100g (1/2 c) sugar, I like to use a granulated organic raw cane sugar, but regular white is fine
350g (1 1/2c) red wine, I use a barbera or dolcetto table wine. It does't need to be an expensive wine


Method:

• Wash and pat dry. If you prefer you can peel them, but I found them deliciously rustic with the skins on, although you will get more color contrast when peeled. which may be n ice for serving guests.
• Trim the bottom of the pears so they will sit up straight, peel, if desired.
• You might want to use a ceramic baking dish that you can bring to the table. Lightly butter or oil. I used a metal rectangular pan, lined with baking paper and stood the pears upright. 
• Pour the wine over all the surfaces of the pears.
• Sprinkle the sugar over the pears so that the sugar sticks to the tops and sides of the pears. **
• Bake in a preheated oven 400* oven. I have a convection oven and bake at 180*-190*C (350*F) for about 45 minutes. If you have the time you can baste the pears with the sauce every 15 minutes for a deeper color. 
• The pears should be soft and the wine sauce thicken and deep rich color. 

**Optional spices if you like, but they are quite nice as is.

Do use a simple combination of spices, as too many will over complicate it.

I prefer them without the spices for the pure clean flavor.

Use whole spices so they are easily seen and fished out.
Some suggestions

**A few citrus peels, a few pink or black peppercorns, 6 juniper berries, a stick of cinnamon, broken in two, 2 whole cloves, 4 whole allspice, 2 star anise, a few peeled ginger slices.  

Easy Peasy Dried Fruit Compote

I ran across this suggestion for dried fruit the other day from a list of favorite holiday desserts, credited to a Mark Bittman post. My photo may not do it justice but it was the last of what turned out to be quite a large recipe and it didn't take the two us all that long to polish it off. I was drawn to this winter dessert suggestion for it's simplicity and use of some ingredients I knew I had that would greatly benefit from this treatment. Stewed, poached and baked fruit desserts are not only a staple in this part of Italy, but they are quite beloved. It doesn't get any easier than this and although perhaps rather humble looking it is elevated to star status by our choice of fruits and the addition of the rose water. You could of course use any sort of flavoring if rose or orange flower aren't available to you or your palate prefers something else. Rum, amaretto, or brandy for an alcoholic twist and of course, the perennial favorite of vanilla or almond would work, but I loved the subtle flavor of the rose water. I used a Monin brand rose water concentrate, that worked beautifully. I also cut the batch in half using 500g of dried fruit, roughly a little more than a pound of what I had on hand. We had some dried plums that were almost too dry to contemplate anything other than fillings or sauces for meats, and so many thinly sliced apples that I was afraid they would over whelm the mix, but they worked great. Next time I would surely add some sultanas( plump white raisins) and some of my coveted stash of dried cranberries to add texture and punch. I wouldn't call it an economical dessert unless you have your own dried fruit, but it has inspired me to make sure that next year I am more vigilant about drying all those delectable fruits as they come into season and the bounty is almost overwhelming. It is that good.

1#(500g) dried fruit filled this 9"(22cm) container on the left

Dried Fruit Compote

easily serves 8-10

2 pounds mixed (1kg) dried fruit 

(pitted prunes/plums, apricots, peaches, pears, apples, cranberries, cherries, white raisins ....your choice)
2 tablespoon of rose or orange blossom water (optional)**
Put all the dried fruit in a bowl and cover with tepid water.* 

Let sit for at least 24 hours covered, in not too warm of a room temperature, then move to the refrigerator for 24 hours more.

Stir in optional rose or orange blossom water or other choice of flavoring .

Don't be tempted to add any sweetener, as I found it to be just right as it is with the fruit playing the starring role.

Serve with crème fraîche or thick slightly sweetened greek style yogurt. 

I use to love vanilla Brown Cow and Mountain High yogurt brands when I lived in the US and they were available to me. I usually make my own now.

A sprinkling of toasted hazelnuts, pecans or coconut could be a nice finishing touch as well. 

**The amount of flavoring really depends on your taste and how the fruit absorbs it. For my 1 pound or 500g of fruit mix, I used 1 tablespoon when covering it with the water and another when I was ready to serve as I found I wanted the rose flavor to stand out more. I think the apples maybe muffled the flavor of the rose water.

* I used hot water as my fruit was home dried and really almost rock hard and it held up without disintegrating, but you should use discretion with the temperature of the water if you find your fruit is delicate. I allowed the mixture to cool for several hours after adding the hot water and then put it in the refrigerator and it really only took 1 day to sit before it was ready.