Peanut Butter Truffles & Strawberry Rhubarb Cobbler Pie

It's Sunday -- time for Sweet Melissa Sundays! I missed posting last Sunday so I have two treats to share from The Sweet Melissa Baking Book by Melissa Murphy. First off, for this week's selection, Mara of Love Your Mother picked these decadent Peanut Butter Truffles (recipe here). A big thank you to Mara, who has an amazing craft and food blog, very fun!

This recipe had me racking my brain, trying to remember the last time I made truffles, and I don't think I've ever really made them before! I've done different kinds of coated candies but never true truffles. This recipe didn't work out perfectly for me, I got a few decent truffles, after letting the truffle mixture sit in the fridge for six hours (recipe recommends two) my truffle mixture was still too soft to roll. I popped it in the freezer for a little bit, and ended up firming it up enough to be able to roll some truffle balls. As soon as they were rolled, you could tell they needed to go back in the freezer, they were flattening and just too soft.

In the recipe you are to roll the truffle directly into chopped peanuts, but I decided to do a candy coating (wilton candy melts) since they were so soft, and then sprinkle the peanuts on the candy coating shell. This worked for about 7 truffles, before the balls were too soft to coat in the candy coating, getting all gloppy and just making a mess. Kind of disappointed in my attempt at these, I should have been able to make 50 or so truffles with all of the ingredients but most ended up tossed out because they were just too soft. Now I'm thinking I could probably have beat in some powdered sugar to stiffen them up, oh-well. I'm pretty sure the other Sweet Melissa Sunday bakers had a better go with these. At least I did get a pretty few to photograph, and of course they were delicious :)

Last week's recipe was an amazing Strawberry Rhubarb Cobbler Pie picked for us to try by Tracey of Tracey’s Culinary Adventures, you can find the recipe here at Tracey's site, along with some amazing food photography :)

I absolutely love fruit desserts, and putting a biscuit cobbler topping on a pie is a genius idea! I had so much fun making this recipe. The end result was oh so delicious, but quite a bit runnier than I typically like my pies. I even doubled the cornstarch before baking because I noted others had trouble with the pie being too runny on the SMS site, to no avail. It was still enjoyed and I'm for sure going to try a cobbler pie again :)

Cherry Tomato Cobbler -- I Heart Cooking Clubs

Time for another Mark Bittman recipe for I Heart Cooking Clubs! Although this week's theme was Pantry Raid, and I also did some fridge raiding for this recipe.

As soon as I saw the title of this recipe, Tomato Cobbler, listed on Mark Bittman's recipe site, I knew it would be one I had to try. I love tomatoes and any recipe called cobbler has me swooning. This recipe is also in How to Cook Everything Vegetarian (HTCEV) -- my newest cookbook that I bought just so I could have fun with the gang at I Heart Cooking Clubs :)

Tomato Cobbler
Mark Bittman

Oil or butter for the baking dish
3 pounds ripe tomatoes (8 to 10 medium), cored and cut into wedges -- I used cherry tomatoes, halved
1 tablespoon cornstarch
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
1 cup all-purpose flour, plus more if needed
1 cup cornmeal
1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
4 tablespoons (1/2 stick) butter, cut into large pieces and refrigerated until very cold
1 egg, beaten
3/4 cup buttermilk, plus more if needed

Grease a square baking dish or a deep pie plate with the butter or oil. Preheat the oven to 375˚F.

Put the tomato wedges in a large bowl and sprinkle with the cornstarch and some salt and pepper. Toss gently to combine.

Put the flour, cornmeal, baking powder, and baking soda in a food processor along with a teaspoon of salt. Add the butter and pulse a few times until the mixture looks like coarse bread crumbs. Add the egg and buttermilk and pulse a few times more, until the mixture comes together in a ball. If the mixture doesn’t come together, add a spoonful or two of flour. If the mixture is too dry, add a few drops of buttermilk.

Gently toss the tomato mixture again and spread it in the bottom of the prepared baking dish. Drop spoonfuls of the batter on top and smooth a bit with a knife. (Try to leave some gaps so that the steam from the tomato mixture will have a place to escape as the cobbler bakes.)

Bake for 45 to 50 minutes, until golden on top and bubbly underneath. Cool to just barely warm or room temperature. To serve, scoop servings out with a large spoon.

I made the cheesy topping variation of this recipe, which is simply one cup of shredded cheese added to the biscuit mixture in the food processor, I used Gruyere.

A very important note in this recipe is at the end, where Mark says to cool until barely warm or room temperature before serving. I tried a little taste soon after the cobbler came out of the oven, and the flavor and texture significantly improved after cooling. This could be the perfect light lunch, paired with a salad and some San Pellegrino, yum!

Bear's Peach Cobbler -- Sweet Melissa Sundays

I'm so excited -- today is my day to pick a recipe for Sweet Melissa Sundays! I chose Bear's Peach Cobbler from The Sweet Melissa Baking Book because peach cobbler is one of my favorite desserts and I couldn't wait to give Melissa's recipe a try. Also, I thought it was neat that Melissa mentions before the recipe that she first made this for her little sister's fifth birthday and it ended up being her favorite dessert. I'm an only child and when I was younger always wished for a little sister. I'm sure if I had one I'd be in the kitchen creating desserts either for or with her all the time :) I hope that my fellow SMS bakers enjoyed this recipe, I can't wait to visit everyone and see how their cobblers turned out.

I used California Summer White peaches (they look like apples when sliced and have an amazing flavor) and skipped peeling them...

Bear’s Peach Cobbler
Serves 6 to 8

Ingredients for the cobbler topping:
1 cup all-purpose flour
1 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
2 tablespoons sugar plus 1 1/2 teaspoons for sprinkling
1/2 teaspoon freshly grated lemon zest
2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch pieces
1/2 cup heavy cream
1 tablespoon whole milk or heavy cream, for glazing

Ingredients for the peach filling:
6 cups peeled, sliced, ripe peaches (bout 3 1/2 pounds)
Juice of 1 lemon
3/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons cornstarch
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Directions:

1. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt, 2 tablespoons sugar, and zest. Using a pastry blender, cut in the butter until it resembles a coarse meal. Little by little stir in the heavy cream until dough starts to hold together (a bit more cream may be used if needed).

2. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured work surface. Pat dough together to form a round about 1/2-inch thick. Using a lightly floured 2 1/2-inch round biscuit cutter (I just a heart cookie cutter) to cut the dough into 7 to 8 biscuits.

3. Place biscuits on a cookie sheet lined with parchment or aluminum foil and refrigerate loosely covered with plastic wrap, while you make the filling or until you are ready to use.

4. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. and butter a 2-quart ovenproof deep-dish pan. Line a cookie sheet with parchment or foil.

5. To make the filling, stir together peach slices, lemon juice, sugar, cornstarch and cinnamon in a large bowl.

Pour peach mixture into prepared dish.


Place the biscuits evenly on top of the peach mixture and brush with milk. Sprinkle with remaining sugar.


6. Place dish on the lined cookie sheet and bake for 1 hour and 15 minutes or until biscuits are cooked through. Remove to a wire rack to cool before serving. This cobbler should be eaten the day it is baked. Serve warm with vanilla ice cream or whipped cream.

*My cobbler is still baking, I just wanted to post the recipe early for SMS, I can't wait to report back with results, which I think we will love! Thanks for visiting :)


Update: Yum, yum, yum! This cobbler was wonderful, I had never used white peaches in cobbler before and they turned out great. My kids all absolutely loved this, my super picky husband is not a peach fan, but he tried it and said it was really good, even though he only wanted a little taste. What a delicious Sweet Melissa Sundays treat!

Look at that gorgeous rosy peach color from the SummerWhite Peaches, I love it!

Cherry Rhubarb Cobbler -- Tuesdays with Dorie

I was so excited to try this recipe, chosen by Amanda from Like Sprinkles on a Cupcake . I absolutely love fruit desserts and hadn't had rhubarb in years and never cooked with it myself so this was something fun and new to try. The cobbler came together very easily, preparing the cherries - which we got a a roadside fruit stand, and the rhubarb - which we found at Meijer, was the most time consuming part. I was excited to try my new 14 cup food processor that arrived a few days ago out with this recipe. I'd like to thank Dorie for giving me an excuse to buy a second food processor, I wanted a bigger one already, and since so many recipes include using one I thought why not? Now I know you don't ever *have* to use one even if the recipe mentions one, but I wanted one :)

My cherry pittin' station -- see my pitter scissors? They are great!

My new 14 cup food processor, making some "moist clumps and curds" as directed, it's so obedient :)

Taste testers for the evening were my children, myself, and my mom, I always invite her over for dinner when I'm doing a TWD dessert. My husband was working, and he missed out, because there were no leftovers! My kids loved it, I loved it, and my mom liked the fruit part but not the topping, I believe it was the whole wheat flour that really turned her off. I don't even know if she's ever had anything whole wheat other than bread, and she said it reminded her of a piece of whole wheat bread on top...totally not what I thought but we have very different tastes. It was a tad healthy tasting, but homey healthy, not boring gag me healthy.

My super silly two year old taste tester, he absolutely loved this dessert and asked for seconds and thirds! Look at all that cobbler on his face, what a little messy mess :)

I really enjoyed the combo of cherries and rhubarb in this dessert, but I woulnd't hesitate to make with just cherries, I think that would work out fine too. My only change to the recipe was to add 1/2 cup of sugar to the fruit mixture instead of 1/3 -- I almost added 2/3 but didn't want it to be too sweet. Why did I change the sugar amount? Well, I hadn't had rhubarb in years, and years ago the only rhubarb I think I had was in prepared

strawberry rhubarb pies, where it's all mushy, so I wanted to try a bite of raw rhubarb and see what I thought, WHOA was it sour! Now I know rhubarb is supposed to be a little sour, but my pack of rhubarb contained stalks of different sizes and colors, and to me most of it looked a little pre-ripe, so I added the extra bit of sugar just incase my rhubarb was tarter than it should have been.

Oops, I said me only change was about the sugar, I guess I did one more change and that was to cut my peeled rhubarb quite thin and not into the 1 inch pieces mentioned in the book. Why did I do this? I was just nervous about the rhubarb and didn't want us to not like it and have those big chunks ruin the recipe for us. I'm glad I sliced it smaller, since the kids have never had it I didn't want to scare them away from rhubarb and the smaller slices for us 'unconfirmed rhubarb eaters' were the perfect intro to that unique fruit, or wait, isn't it a vegetable?

Before going in the oven, I felt like I should flatted my puffs a little bit, I knew they would rise but not spread too much.

Ta-Da! All bubbly and beautiful, I had my oven timer set to check it at 35 minutes, and I ended up letting it bake for 40 minutes total.