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Peach, Goat Cheese & Balsamic Pizza
Fruit, on a pizza? It might sound weird, but the sweet-and-savory combination here is surprisingly delicious. With a drizzle of balsamic glaze and a sprinkle of coarse salt and pepper, it’s perhaps the perfect pizza for summer.
It might sound like a strange combination, but, if you think about it, tomatoes are actually fruits so why not treat them as such? And if one fruit goes well with cheese (goat cheese, in this case), it seems logical that others would too: peaches in particular. They’re not going to last forever, so make the most advantage of the tree-ripened peaches while you still can!
So I realized after testing this recipe a few times that we had made something very similar years ago. The main difference between that pizza and this one is that the peaches were cooked. Here, I’ve opted to preserve the bright freshness of the ripe peaches by placing them on the pizza after it comes out of the oven.
This version also has tomato sauce, which makes it an actual pizza in Taylor’s mind at least (anything without tomato sauce he calls flatbread out of principle). The tomato plays surprisingly well with the peach, a combination I’d discovered years ago when I whipped up a tomato peach jam that blurs the line between savory and sweet. I mean, tomatoes are fruits, afterall, so why not treat them as such?
If you’re intrigued by the mention of this unique jam, different variations of the recipe can be found in both our cookbook (as an accompaniment to our parmesan beignets), and in my jam ebook series.
Needless to say, peach and tomato it’s a combination I turn to quite regularly, so the fact that it works equally well here in pizza form is no surprise.
I love using micro basil (or any microgreens, actually) when I can find them. Which is why I’ve been particularly excited to have found a regular vendor at the farmers market that sells all different kinds of them, freshly cut to order. I really hope he sticks around through the fall and winter too!
The small, young leaves are perfect for dishes like this, as they offer the perfect punch of basil flavor without any cutting or tearing required. I also find young basil to have a more delicate, herbal flavor; older, more mature basil tends to be harsher and sharper (the authentic pestos from the Ligurian coast of Italy are all made using young basil; it’s one reason why it’s the best pesto in the world and nothing else quite measures up.)
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Mini Blueberry Mousse Cakes with Mirror Glaze
These impressive little cakes feature a fluffy blueberry mascarpone mousse surrounding a half-dome of intense blueberry gelée, with a layer of soft almond sponge cake and a gorgeously shiny mirror glaze to top it all off.
These little cakes might be small, but they are immensely impressive, mainly due to the perfectly shiny layer of vibrant purple mirror glaze that enrobes them. It’s a pretty time-consuming process, but split over a few days it is more than manageable.
I’ve had a set of silicone half-sphere molds for over 3 years now, having picked them up at E.Dehillerin in Paris. I used the mini size for truffles once, but otherwise they’ve just been sitting in the cabinet, waiting to be used. (I also picked up a set of cool but completely impractical triangle cake pans which I haven’t found a use for yet either.)
So when I found myself facing two tubs full of freshly-picked blueberries, making a fancy blueberry dessert worthy of a Parisian pastry shop seemed like just the ticket.
In my experience (and by experience I mean eating fancy desserts in every city I visit) I’ve learned that the fancier the dessert, the more layers it is likely to have. If you want to pretend to be a pro pastry chef, you need at least 4 different concoctions making up a single dessert. Yes, it takes some time to make and assemble all these different components (these cakes pretty much devoured an entire weekend before I devoured them) but the final result, as I think you’ll agree, is well worth it.
In technical terms, this is called an entremet cake, or a multi-layered mousse-based cake with various complementary flavors and textures. The recipe itself is quite similar to the Sakura Matcha Mousse cake I made this spring, with an airy mascarpone mousse and a tender sponge cake as the base.
Here I went with a subtle almond-scented cake, with a blueberry mousse and then a center of intense blueberry gelée (aka fancy jello) to really max out the blueberry flavor. But where it really gets fancy is the glaze – a luscious mirror glaze that gets its name from the gorgeous mirror-like sheen.
Now, my cakes certainly are not perfect by any means. This whole mirror glaze thing is definitely a technique that one needs to master, although it’s still pretty darn cool even when it’s less than perfect.
I’ve made lots of notes for myself about how I can improve things next time (like adding some sort of decorative edging to the base, like coconut or sprinkles, to hide the mess down there). I’m also not too keen on the transition from the mousse to the cake not being perfectly smooth, and feel it might work better to have the cake layer smaller and down inside the mousse rather than sitting on top of it.
And my attempt at a swirled glaze effect? My two tone purples weren’t different enough and so you can’t really tell there are two colors at all. Note to self: next time, make the colors more distinct.
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Summer Fancy Food Show Trends Emphasize Innovation
Upcycled Foods, Cassava Snacks, Hidden or Unexpected Vegetables, and Cauliflower were among the standout trends identified by members of the Specialty Food Association’s Summer Trendspotter Panel at the Summer Fancy Food Show, which took place June 30 – July 2.
“The specialty food industry has grown to over $140 billion,” said Denise Purcell, head of content for the SFA. “We’re seeing new flavors and new formats of food. Plant-based foods are growing from a trend into an overall movement, and upcycling is huge. Spins on classics continue to surprise us, and flavors from around the world continue to grow prominent in the marketplace. No matter where you look, something exciting is happening.”
A complete list of trends and product examples spotted at the show can be found here.
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Classic Italian Spritz
The classic Italian Spritz is the perfect cocktail recipe for summer: with crisp, bubbly prosecco and a bitter sweet apertif, there are few things more refreshing.
I challenge you to find a cocktail better suited for sipping on a hot summer day than the classic Italian spritz. The bubbly prosecco and bittersweet aperitif combine to create the perfect antidote for the heat and humidity, from Nashville to Venice and everywhere in between.
Taylor here, taking over where Lindsay simply can’t (I love her, but she can’t tolerate much alcohol… unless it’s in baked goods, of course!) I may be more behind the scenes around here most of the time (you can usually find me at the sink cleaning up Lindsay’s messes), but when it comes to cocktails, I’m your guy. And today? It’s all about the spritz.
I was introduced to the spritz for the first time last summer in perhaps the birthplace of the drink itself: Venice, Italy. As we wandered the canals and piazzas, we quickly noticed that pretty much every person at every table outside of every cafe was sipping on a large glass of some concoction that practically glowed orange in the afternoon sun.
Curious as to what everyone was drinking (and because it was 95 degrees and whatever it was sure looked refreshing), I stopped and tried one. That was my first taste of a true spritz. I was instantly hooked. Once we returned home, I quickly figured out the formula to make my own (luckily it couldn’t be easier) and have been keeping our liquor cabinet fully stocked with spritz making supplies ever since.
While the spritz has seen many variations through the centuries, the modern spritz is a prosecco-based cocktail with a splash of an aperitif: an alcoholic liqueur that is usually somewhat bitter with fruity and herbal flavors. Aperitifs are made from a wide range of ingredients, which is what gives them their unique flavors. Some are wine based, others are spirit based, but most are flavored with their own secret variety of herbs, spices, fruits such as rhubarb and citrus, and even vegetables like artichokes.
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Spritz Sorbet
Your favorite summer cocktail is now an ultra-refreshing sorbet! Made with prosecco, aperol, and freshly squeezed orange juice, spritz sorbet is bright and boozy and utterly delicious.
Just how refreshing is it? On a scale of 1 to 10, where 10 is a plunge into a crisp blue lake on a summer day, this sorbet ranks right up there. It’s bright and fruity, and just boozy enough to get your tastebuds grooving. Needless to say, you need to stop wallowing in the heat and whip up a batch, stat.
Taylor gas been drinking Spritzes pretty much non-stop since we got back from Italy last summer (he’s obsessed, I tell you!), but this summer the spritz has officially invaded the states. Is it just me or are they everywhere now?
Not that I’m complaining, the Spritz is perfect for these hot summer days—vibrant in color, bold in flavor, and simple in preparation—so it’s no wonder people love them so much.
It’s officially the summer of spritz.
Turning summer’s iconic cocktail into a sorbet took a bit of strategy, as we all know that alcohol doesn’t freeze completely, so I couldn’t just dump a big batch of spritz into the ice cream maker and call it a day (it’s never that easy, is it?)
Instead I cooked the prosecco down along with the sugar, both concentrating the flavor and cooking out the alcohol just enough so the sorbet will freeze.
But the beauty of still having some of the alcohol left is that the sorbet doesn’t freeze solid; rather, it takes on the perfect consistency right at the threshold of ice and slush.
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Cookie Dough Ice Cream Sandwiches
For lovers of raw cookie dough, these jaw-dropping ice cream sandwiches are the ultimate treat: featuring layers of raw cookie dough and a rich, brown sugar ice cream in between.
This is chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream deconstructed, with two thin layers of safe-to-eat raw cookie dough in place of where the cookies would typically be. And in between lies an ultra rich and creamy brown sugar frozen custard, excellent on its own but divine when paired with cookie dough.
Ok, so I admit that I already have a cookie dough ice cream sandwich recipe in my book (in fact, it’s on the cover!) It’s a great recipe, I’m not saying it’s not (I wouldn’t have put it in the book if it wasn’t), with a thick layer of homemade chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream sandwiched between two sweet and salty dark chocolate cookies. I mean, it sounds amazing, right? Because it is.
But though they might both be called the same thing, I promise you I’m not repeating myself here (and I admit I’ve repeated recipes before, albeit not intentionally). Rather, these cookie dough ice cream sandwiches are a different beast entirely. The cookie dough is the main focus here, pure and unadulterated with no chocolate cookie to distract you from your cookie dough bliss.
That, and, well, let’s face it, they’re easier. These are the ice cream sandwiches that you’ll make when you’re craving cookie dough and ice cream sandwiches but don’t want to deal with the time/effort to make the cookies.
Lest we focus solely on the cookie dough itself and forget about the ice cream… this isn’t any ordinary ice cream. It’s brown sugar ice cream, or frozen custard, if you will (characterized by the egg base that makes this ice cream incredibly rich and creamy).
The brown sugar ice cream is excellent on its own, too, in case you were wondering (and depending on how thick you make your sandwiches you might very well have some leftover, poor you).
Also, I strongly believe that few things compare to homemade ice cream, but you could certainly swap in a quart of store-bought vanilla or cookie dough ice cream here as well if you’re short on time.
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SFA News Live: Patti Jackson
Patti Jackson, chef of NYC's Delaware and Hudson, and one of the judgest of the 2018 SFA Front Burner Foodservice Pitch Competition, talks with SFA News Live host Paul Barron.
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Zurich, Switzerland: For the love of chocolate.
I’ll fully admit to letting my stomach guide me in our decision to spend 2 days in Zurich this past spring, or, more accurately, my sweet tooth led us there.
To put it bluntly: I wanted chocolate. Real Swiss chocolate. And lots of it.
That’s as much a reason to go somewhere as anything, right?
Our big trip this year was a family affair, the result of perhaps a few too many margaritas during our family reunion in Lake Tahoe last fall. It didn’t take much poking and prodding to make it a reality, and before we knew it we found ourselves with flights booked and a rough itinerary planned, giving us 5 nights in Venice and 6 nights in the most amazing castle chateau in the Loire Valley region of France (I plan to share more about this part very soon!)
But we found ourselves with 2 unaccounted for days in the middle of the trip. The rest of our party was splitting up, my sister and her friend heading off to the turquoise waters of Croatia and Greece, and my aunts and cousin were going to drive to France, stopping in Turin and Lyon along the way. We weren’t too keen on the whole 14-hours-in-a-car thing, but what else to do with that time?
We could always spend it in Paris, sure, and that would have been the most economical option (we had to get back to Paris anyway to catch the train to the Loire Valley), but we’ve already been to Paris, and while we certainly could have occupied ourselves there with pastries alone, were itching to visit someplace new.
Zurich was on our shortlist, a place that I felt drawn to ever since I learned of my Swiss ancestry (no wonder I love cheese and chocolate so much), and visiting just seemed right. So, we booked a cheap flight from Venice to Zurich and set about deciding what to do with the whole 36 hours we had to spend there.
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SFA News Live: Smitha Haneef
Smitha Haneef talks with Foodable Network's Paul Barron on SFA News Live.
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SFA News Live: David Benzaquen
David Benzaquen talks with SFA News Live host Phil Lempert.
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Egg Protein, Upcycled Products Among Trendspotter Picks
Sustainable products, global flavors, and protein were among the themes identified by the SFA Trendspotter Panel, who combed the exhibit halls of the Summer Fancy Food Show, which ended yesterday in New York. The panel, which consisted of buyers, food writers, chefs, and market watchers, shared their latest picks:
Upcycled Products. As food waste gains awareness in the industry, more products have come to market made with upcycled ingredients—food scraps or leftovers that would otherwise go to waste being repurposed into a new product. Rise and Our Grain offer flours made from the spent barley left over from the brewing process that would normally go to waste. Caskai Sparkling Cascara Infusion is a lightly carbonated spring water lightly infused with cascara, a waste product from coffee processing, grown in the highlands of Panama and Nicaragua. Another company, Rind creates dried fruit which uses every part of the fruit.
African Flavors. Flavors from the regions of Africa are gaining prominence. Ahara Rasa Ghee offered Ethiopian spiced clarified butter (Niter Kibbeh), traditional condiment; International Delicacies Kitchen & Love had a line of stir-and-go quick meals in Moroccan vegetable harissa with a minced cauliflower base; Ginjan Bros. showcased Ginjan, a traditional West African ginger juice made with ginger, cold-pressed pineapple, lemons, vanilla, anise, and cane sugar. And Ayoba-yo offered a South African-style biltong, a dried, cured meat that originated in Botswana, South Africa, Zimbabwe, and Namibia. This version uses grass-fed beef that is air dried and seasoned.
Egg Emergence. The familiar and humble egg is becoming a hero ingredient, delivering protein without carbs with mainstream appeal. Bantam Bagels exhibited Egg Bites, scrambled egg-filled bagel bites in Original, Onion Gruyere, Chipotle, and Veggie flavors. Vital Farms offered Pasture-Raised Hard Boiled Eggs, two refrigerated eggs for on-the-go eating. And Eggurt offers a probiotic yogurt drink made from pasteurized egg whites—a good source of protein that is gluten-, soy-, and dairy-free.
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SFA News: Molly Wilson
Molly Wilson stops by SFA News Live at the Summer Show.
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SFA News Live: Joanna Pruess
Cookbook author Joanna Pruess talks with SFA News Live's Phil Lempert.
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SFA News Live: Denise Purcell
Denise Purcell, SFA's director of content, talks trends from the Sumemr Fancy Food Show on SFA News Live.
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SFA News Live: Sue Conley
Sue Conley of Cowgirl Creamery stops by SFA News Live.
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Fresh Mint Iced Tea
The perfect summer refreshment: mint iced tea brewed with garden fresh mint and sweetened just how you like it with a vanilla mint sugar syrup.
This is unlike any iced tea you’ve had before. Rather than using bags of dried tea that are who knows how old, this one is made with fresh mint right from the garden (or, you know, the grocery). Make a big batch of it to sip all summer long!
I recently came across a photo of a yard overtaken by mint. It was literally a carpet of mint alongside the entire house, and while the caption implied this was a bad thing (it shows just how pervasive mint can be when set loose), I couldn’t help but wish I had a yard so I could do just that. Intentionally.
Why? So I could have an unlimited supply of fresh mint for tea, of course (maybe I’d lend some to Taylor for a Julep now and then, but only if he asked nicely!) For now, my two pots of mint will have to suffice.
I love sipping on hot mint tea in the winter, but have always bought the dried stuff. It wasn’t until our recent trip to France where our hostess brewed up a pot of warm mint tea one night using a handful of fresh mint from the garden.
I know it seems silly, but I’d never even thought to use fresh mint. It was nothing short of a life-changing revelation.
And, while hot tea made with fresh mint is divine, I don’t exactly want to be drinking anything even remotely warm when it’s this hot outside.
So I set about making an iced version, perfect for summer sipping.
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SFA News Live: Gail Becker
Gail Becker sits down with Phil Lempert at the Summer Show's SFA News Live.
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SFA Trendspotter Panel Eyes Hidden Veggies, Cassava Chips, Functional Beverages
Variations on plant-based foods and beverages with benefits are on trend at the Summer Fancy Food Show, according to the SFA’s Trendspotter Panel, a group of buyers, food writers, and market watchers who report daily on their trend selections from the show. Here are their latest picks:
Making Veggies Fun
Specialty food makers continue to develop “better-for-you” alternatives in snacks and treats, responding to consumers’ health and wellness desires. In addition to more veggie-based snacks on display, the panel saw vegetables hidden in traditional treats. For example, Peekaboo Organic Ice Cream offers Hidden Veggies, indulgent ice creams with vegetables in every bite. Flavors include Chocolate with Hidden Cauliflower, Strawberry with Hidden Carrot, and Cotton Candy with Hidden Beets. Caulipower has launched vegetable-based baking mixes. And veggie snack chips on offer include Peeled Snacks Peas Please Organic Crunchy Pea Snacks, and Growers Garden Broccoli Crisps.
Cassava Snacks
Tied to the continuing plant-based foods trend, cassava is emerging in snack foods. Examples include Jan's Cassava Chips, Indonesian company Nanduto Home Cooking’s Cassava Leaves Chips, Coco's Popped Cassava Chips, and Siete Cassava Chips and Cashew Queso.
Functional Beverages
Refrigerated RTD functional beverages are up 20 percent in retail sales, according to the Specialty Food Association’s recently released State of the Specialty Food Industry research, produced in cooperation with Mintel. While driven in large part by kombucha, more categories are emerging. Exhibitors are offering functional vinegars like Vermont Village Organic Beauty Boost Functional Vinegar, a combination of raw and organic apple cider vinegar mixed with cherry juice and lime juice and spiked with collagen to replace diminishing levels as consumers age. Other functional beverages include probiotic teas and waters, including Suja Life Probiotic Waters that contain crushed fruit and a high probiotic unit count.
More Trendspotter picks will be reported in tomorrow’s edition of Specialty Food News.
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