1. A late summer dessert with stone fruit: Peach and Plum Tart by Eric Ripert in his book "A return to cooking"
For this dessert, I made a sort of peach preserve by cooking peach slices, some butter and a little sugar over medium-low heat until it was jam-like, which took about 45 minutes. As this preserve cooled down, I put a sheet of thawed store-bought puff pastry on a cookie sheet lined with parchment paper. Using a fork, I gently poked some holes on sheet so that it would not puff up in the oven. Then I spread the peach preserve on top, followed by thin slices of plums. (In his recipe, Eric Ripert suggested making small individual round tarts on which he arranged plum slices in an overlapping circular pattern. I didn't want to cut up my sheet of puff pastry into circles and thus wasting some dough edges, so I just used the whole sheet like a gallette.) After brushing the plum with some melted butter and sprinkling a couple of tablespoons of sugar, I baked the tart in the oven at 400F for about 20-25 minutes. The result was a beautiful, shiny, caramelized tart that smelled tangy like peaches and plum.
(I often eyeball the ingredients without strict measurement, which works well for this tart. If you have any left over peach preserve, you can keep it in the fridge for a few days, add it to another fruit pie or turn-over that you make, or eat it like jam on a piece of toast. Leftover plums? Eat them up or use them to make this awesome plum salsa. )
2. Poached Pears in Red Wine and Fall Spice, based on a recipe in Anthony Bourdain's "Les Halles Cookbook"
This recipe made me realize how easy it can be to transform pears into a dessert of much warmth and complexity. I stirred together a bottle of red wine (sweet kinds are okay, since you'd want to have some sweetness in this dessert anyway), two tablespoons of sugar, 4-5 whole peppercorns, 3 whole cloves, 1 cinnamon stick, 3 whole star anise pieces and a slight squeeze of lemon juice. I cooked this mixture over medium heat to dissolve all the sugar, then added halved peeled and cored pears. (Depending on how wide your pot is and how many servings you need, you can adjust the amount of pears, wine and spices used. I used four pears and a whole bottle of wine (750ml), which was plenty of poaching liquid.) I kept the pot covered and simmered for about 20 minutes, then gently turned the pears and let them simmer for another 20. You can serve the pear warm as is, with a little wine sauce, or you can serve it at room temperature, with some sauce and a scoop of vanilla ice cream drizzled with chocolate ganache. Each bite will warm your heart, I promise!
I like this recipe because it is so easy and so good. It also leaves room for tweaking too. You can certainly improvise on what spices to use. Next time, I might try using some fresh ginger and orange zest in the poaching liquid.
A note about the choice of pear: I'd suggest you use ripe but firmer pears since they do become quite tender and delicate as they are poached. You would not want to deal with an over-ripe pear that will fall apart in the pot.
3. The easiest apple to accompany ice cream: Apple Cinnamon Rings
The recipe for this dessert is here. It took me 15 minutes to make, using our powerful new smart Breville toaster oven with a broil function. I'm sure a conventional broiler would also take little time. These apple rings are simple but perfect to jazz up vanilla ice cream on a cooler week night.
Stay warm and enjoy the change of seasons!
