Raspberry Gin Fizz

When I first introduced my summer drink quest last month, all there was were visions of me sipping happily away on my adult beverage, book in hand, sitting on my porch in the late afternoon soon.  Happy, content, with a cool breeze coming along and tying the whole picture together.  

Unfortunately, this weather, today and now, in a word, sucks.  I am an Arizona girl at heart (even if my license plate no longer has a cactus on it... but that's a sad story for another day) and even I find this heat punishing and unbearable.  Dreams of sipping a cold drink outside waft away like the heat waves rising up from the asphalt.  I wish I was exaggerating here, but the unhappy truth is that there will be more perspiration on you then there will be on the outside of your glass.  While this doesn't make for the end of the world, it also doesn't make for a dry tank top.  

Lucky for us though, berry happy gin has a way of making problems like this melt away.  As long as it is consumed ice cold, in a tall glass, safely in the vicinity of functioning AC and (if you are lucky enough) an overhead fan.  I stuck with the fresh, seasonal berry + liquor motif for round 2 of "Let's find Liz a good summer drink" with similarly happy results.  Here, beautiful raspberries are pureed with sugar, mingled with fresh squeezed lime juice and then the whole lot gets together with some gin and the happiness begins.  Top it off with a pour fizzy and you are in for some good summer drinking.

Raspberry Gin Fizz
Adapted from Bon Appetit, July 2012

In regards to my summer contest, blackberry mojitos are still on top, but just barely.  Maybe the fact that they were consumed on a porch pushed them just ahead of the competition.  The one thing that these gin fizzes really have going for them though (and the reason I will come back to them again, very, very soon), is that unlike the mojitos, these very easily are made in a batch.  I had a small pitcher of the raspberry, lime, gin in the fridge all weekend and was never a pour of some tonic away from a wonderful summer cocktail. It was a very good weekend.  

For 8 servings:

6 oz raspberries, well washed
1/2 c. sugar
2 c. gin
1 c. fresh lime juice (about 12 limes)
Mineral Water, club soda, tonic

In blender (or magic bullet) whir raspberries and sugar until pureed.  Let stand, shaking occasionally, until sugar is dissolved.  Meanwhile, juice limes into pitcher.  Set a fine-mesh sieve over pitcher and slowly pour raspberry puree through.  Discard seeds remaining in sieve.  Pour gin into pitcher and mix into all components are incorporated.

In tall glasses with ice, pour about 1/2 cup of gin mixture.  Top with whatever fizzy you like best.  Enjoy immediately, preferably in a tank top and flip flops.

Peach Raspberry Crisp

Somewhere in my mother's house, hidden in a box under some dust, unfit for internet publication, is a picture of my sister and I dressed up in our bedding, acting the part of Arabian princesses.  We were told to strip our beds and bring the sheets out to my mom to wash.  When she yelled at us 30 minutes later to hurry our butts up, that is what she found.  Luckily she thought it was cute, her idiot daughters, and grabbed the camera to save the moment forever.

My sister and I have a history of being idiotic and silly together.  It shouldn't really come as much of a surprise that when asked to take pictures of me cooking this fabulous peach raspberry crisp, she said yes and soon adopted the personae of a Russian photographer, accent and everything.  Why Russian?  Because that's what came out.  And did I play along?  I crumbled that crisp with as much passion and flying flour I could muster, much to the chagrin of my time-crunched mother who was trying to get a family meal on the table.  It ended in laughs, a minimal amount of flour and oats on the floor, hilarious pictures (unfit for internet publication, of course) and one damn good peach raspberry crisp.

Love to my Russian photographer sister, saintly mother and fresh peaches and raspberries!

Peach Raspberry Crisp

This was inspired from Martha Stewart's new cookbook, Martha's American Food.  My mom pulled it from some magazine.  It started as a blueberry crisp, but mom had raspberries in the fridge and the peaches at the store were delicious and cheap.  A few more subs and this came out.  I couldn't be happier.  I think several fruits could be subbed in (just end up with 6 cups of fruit), as well as different nuts.  The original recipe called for regular sugar, but I switched to brown because I thought it would go better.  This was delicious.  This is a keeper!

Filling:
3 c. peaches, pitted and sliced
3 c. raspberries
1/2 c. brown sugar
1 Tbsp. cornstarch
Juice from half of a lemon
1/4 tsp. kosher salt

Crisp:
6 Tbsp. unsalted butter
1/3 c. brown sugar
3/4 c. flour
1/2 c. old-fashioned oats
1/2 c. chopped walnuts
1/2 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. kosher salt


Preheat oven to 375 degrees.

Mix together peaches, raspberries and remaining filling ingredients.  Pour into an 8 x 8 baking dish.  Squeeze lemon over top.

In large bowl, cream butter and brown sugar.  Add remaining crisp ingredients  (mixed in a small dish before hand would be best) and incorporate into butter/sugar mixture with your hands.  Pinch and squeeze crisp to get a crumble clump like effect.  Sprinkle crisp evenly over fruit filling and do not pack down.

Bake crisp at 375 for 50-60 minutes (mine was closest to 50, but we used a glass dish).  Crisp should be golden brown on top and juices from filling should be bubbling.  When done baking, let cool on wire rack before servings.

Raspberry Buttermilk Cake

My blog crush on the smitten kitchen continues.  And this recipe definitely isn't helping it.  It has gotten stronger, if not more obsessive.  Almost as obsessive as I have become over this cake.  Which is quite obsessive.  This is the dessert from Ben's special welcome to TH dinner. 

This cake was delicious.  And on top of that, this cake was ridiculously easy to make.  But more importantly, this cake was amazing.  Scrumptious.  Wunderbar.  Lecker.  So tasty that I had to go into another language to describe it.  Ben and I demolished seventy-five percent of it in roughly 4 minutes Friday night.  The remaining quarter barely lasted a minute the next morning.  And I had to fight Ben for my fair share of it for breakfast.  The moral of this story is that the cake is deliciously yummy.  For breakfast, dessert and I would certainly eat it for any other meal as well.



The crust is crunchy and crisp and the cake underneath is soft and fluffy and has that yummy tang from the buttermilk.  The raspberries sank to the bottom and become mushy, melted pockets of fresh taste.  I may or may not be drooling right now...  This cake would work with any fresh berry and it was fantastic with raspberries.  For my trip up to Chicago this weekend, I'm already planning on making another one with strawberries and mini chocolate chips.  The one and only thing that I plan to change (besides trying a variety of fillings, but that doesn't count) is to sprinkle Turbinado sugar to form the crust on top instead of regular sugar.  And that was actually the boy's suggestion!  Impressive, right?  He wanted a more crunchy crust and I think it would work great.  Look at him... already earning his keep.

UPDATE 12/29/11:  I have made this cake several times since I discovered it way back when and like I predicted, it is infinitely adaptable.  To date, it has been made with strawberries and with frozen mix berries, both worked beautifully.  On one try, mini chocolate chips were added, although I'm not sure they were necessary.  I've also made it with half white flour, half whole wheat (to make it healthy of course!).  It was a little runny, so a few tablespoons of buckwheat flour were thrown in.  There was no reasoning, but I would be lying if I said that wasn't my favorite version I've made yet.  In summary, if you have left over buttermilk this is what you should be making, regardless if you only have frozen mixed berries and not enough all purpose flour.  Because it will still be amazing.  

Raspberry Buttermilk Cake

Adapted slightly from the Smitten Kitchen

1 c. all-purpose flour, plus more for dusting.

1/2 tsp. baking powder

1/2 tsp. baking soda

1/4 tsp. salt

1/2 stick unsalted butter, softened

2/3 c. sugar

1/2 tsp. pure vanilla extract

1/2 tsp. finely grated lemon zest (optional, I didn't)

1 large egg

1/2 c. well-shaken buttermilk

1 c. fresh raspberries, or other fresh fruit

1 1/2 Tbsp. Turbinado (Sugar in the Raw) sugar

Preheat oven to 400°F with rack in middle. Butter and flour a 9-inch round cake pan.

In small bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt.  In mixer, beat butter and sugar on medium high until light and fluffy.  Beat in vanilla, zest and egg and beat until well incorporated. 

Switch mixer to low speed.  Alternatively, start adding dry ingredients and buttermilk alternatively, beginning and ending with dry ingredients.  Mix until just combined.  Pour batter into prepared cake pan and smooth top.  Scatter berries evenly over the top.  Sprinkle Turbinado sugar evenly over top of everything. 

Put into preheated oven.  Bake cake 20-25 minutes, until golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Cool cake in pan for 10 minutes, then turn out onto a wire rack and let cool to warm, about 10 to 15 minutes more (if you can manage it!)  Invert onto plate.  Devour.