Martin's Hillside Orchard

Explore the Orchard

Apple Crostata (open-faced apple pie)

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All the great taste of a pie and very easy to assemble.  We love Ina Garten’s recipe from  Foodnetwork.com.  We’ve made this in the fall at the height of apple season and then in March with the apples we’d saved up from the harvest.  Delicious every time!

What we learned after having made a few of these:

  • We used pre-made crust for our version. We know homemade crust is the tastiest. But, if your time is limited, the pre-made crust is a great substitute
  • We skipped the food processor when making the crumb topping. We sliced the cold butter into 1/2″ cubes and cut them into the sugar + flour mixture with a pastry fork, working it by hand at the end. Less muss, less equipment to clean.
  • Pleating the edges – Love that we get to make pleats. Small hands can help. Tip: Dampen a finger in water and use that as glue to hold the pleats together.
  • No oranges to zest?  It will still taste great

Baking time and the edges – We found that it took a bit longer to bake the apples than the recipe described. No matter what the timer says, keep baking the crostata until a toothpick shows the apples are tender. Note: To keep the pastry edge from getting too dark while the apples finish baking, we covered the edges with strips of aluminum foil. That was about 30 minutes into the baking process.

This recipe calls for Fuji apples, but any good baking apple will work. Honeycrisp and Jonathans are great options as well

Rustic Peach Desserts

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Whether labeled a tart or a crostata or something else, these open-faced pie recipes are tasty.

  • The rustic nature of these desserts keeps the whole baking process from being intimidating.  Looks messy?  It is supposed to!!
  • Go with thin slices of peaches and you can skip peeling them entirely.
  • Love how that egg wash finishes the crust.

Peach Tart  recipe includes step-by-step instructions for making your own crust, although you are certainly a-okay to go with refrigerated dough to save time. This is the recipe Harvey, the grandog approved.

Peach Crostata recipe is also yummy.  Only thing we might change next time we make it is to add a bit of cinnamon.

The peach slices lend themselves to a nice fan arrangemnt – so maybe it is a bit of fancy to go with the rustic look overall.

 

Keeping it simple

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Peaches and cinnamon ice cream

Don’t have any cinnamon ice cream handy?  No problem.  If you have vanilla ice cream in your freezer and ground cinnamon in your spice rack, you are in business.

Just thaw the ice cream a bit, mix in the ground cinnamon, refreeze, and then serve.  Click here for complete instructions

We skipped the refreezing step because we couldn’t wait to give this a taste.

Have a feeling this cinnamon ice cream might adorn a number of pies, cobbler and fresh fruit all season

 

Ginger Pickled Peaches

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A Savory Twist – Ginger Pickled Peaches

 – Oh me, oh my!  If you are a vinegar fan, you will loooove these.  Simple and super flavorful.  Followed the recipe called out in Food in Jars although didn’t bother to process them in water bath.  Just popped the peaches in a canning jar with the hot brine and parked them in refrigerator.  They will go fast!

Only four ingredients – peaches, apple cider vinegar, sugar and fresh ginger. Great paired with savory items as well as sweet.

Savory – serve with grilled pork chops

Sweet – top a bowl of vanilla ice cream with this flavor combo or use quick filling for cobbler finished with bit of whipped cream.  Yummo

 

 

Squash Mac and Cheese

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Butternut Squash Mac and Cheese

Cool fall weather has us thinking comfort food – soups, stews, risotto, etc.  This recipe caught our eye and it really satisfies.  One medium squash can make this recipes four times over.

Below is breakdown of the types of cheese we used, but you can mix and match to include all your favorites.

  • American cheese – a mainstay
  • Boursin cheese – the recipe called for a semisoft cheese with garlic and herbs.  We opted for Boursin just because we had some left from a wine & cheese tasting. Yummy!  Although it probably more than offset the health benefits of using squash.  Oops
  • Sharp cheddar – Yes, we added even more cheese.  A bit of sharp cheddar.  Feta might be a good choice as well.

Complete recipe from Better Homes & Gardens

Tips

  • Shredding squash – Initially, seemed kind of intimidating, but we didn’t want to muck up a food processor so we just shredded the squash with a food greater.  Worked well and didn’t take long.
  • Spicing it up – For those who like a little heat, we’d suggest adding some peppers.  We’re going to give that a shot next time around.