nectarine – Wait…are those…cookies?!

September 13, 2020September 28, 2020

Galette: A bright spot in the smoke haze

Wow. What a week. It felt positively apocalyptic / end of times here in SF, and that was only because of the smoke.

It honestly feels weird to be writing something as pithy as a blog post about baking when the entire west coast is on fire / newly homeless / hazardous air quality / struggling… it doesn’t seem right, this much hardship.

And yet, I guess in some ways normalcy is a good thing too; this blog is a routine for me and the routine of baking-photographing-saying hi to all of you virtually is comforting, in its own way.

In that vein, I’m sharing this galette today – it was made and eaten to celebrate a going-off-to-college for one of C’s nieces in the quaranpod. Such a great evening of family, amidst the crap air and even crappier times we’re currently living in – a bright spot in the haze.

I’m keeping this short today; mostly because of my own weird mood. I’m sending ALL the love to my PNW fam & friends; I hope hope hope you are all safe and doing okay, despite the circumstances.

When you get a chance, bake. I find it rests my overactive mind for a minute, and allows me to enjoy sharing something tangible with others. Sending love and thoughts of RAIN.

Nectarine, Blackberry and Apricot Galette

Whole grain, refined sugar free. An endless riff on my usual galette; if you need a gluten & grain free crust, here you go! A Wait are Those Cookies original. Yield: 1 galette; serves several (in this case, it served our quaranpod of 8; with a small piece leftover for brunch).

for the crust:
3/4 c whole wheat flour
1/2 c cornmeal
1/4 c almond flour
1/2 tsp sea salt
4oz/1 stick of unsalted butter, cubed
1 tsp vanilla
1 tsp almond extract
1/2 tsp almond extract
2-3 tbsp ice water

In a food processor, pulse together whole wheat flour, cornmeal, almond flour & sea salt. Add in cubed butter and pulse until it resembled coarse sand. Add vanilla & almond extract, then the ice water 1 tbsp at a time until the dough starts to come together. Turn it out onto a board and knead it into a ball. I like to roll it immediately since it’s most pliable (see below for tips) – typically I haven’t had trouble with this dough sticking. I roll it between two sheets of parchment paper and use the bottom one to bake the galette on; makes an easy transferral method between cookie sheet & cooling rack. If you’re not rolling immediately, stuck it in the fridge on a plate. Can be made ahead the night before if need be.

For the fruit:

Nectarines, sliced (I used roughly 4 large ones)
heaping 1c blackberries
2 tsp tapioca starch
1 tbsp maple
zest & juice of one lemon

1/4 c apricot jam (preferably homemade by a friend ;)

In a large bowl, toss together sliced nectarines, blackberries, tapioca, lemon juice/zest and maple.

Preheat the oven to 425. Roll out the dough between two pieces of parchment paper until it’s about 1/4″ thick. Spread the jam in a thin layer over the middle of the dough. Pile the fruit in the center, leaving a border of about 3″. Fold up the sides of the dough over the fruit. Brush the dough with an egg wash and sprinkle with a little coconut sugar. Dot fruit with butter if you like, though it’s not strictly necessary. Pop in the oven and bake for 35-40 minutes, until the crust is lightly browned. Remove to a cooling rack and let cool completely before slicing and serving. Store leftovers in the fridge overnight – it’s great for breakfast :)

July 26, 2020

fuss-free summer crumble

Hello! Happy weekend!

This might be the easiest, least fussy dessert ever. It’s incredibly adaptable to whatever is in your pantry, and it can accommodate any fruit. C and I decided (post-hike, of course) that this is basically like a really fruit-heavy museli. It feels more indulgent though, even though it really isn’t…. it’s just nuts & seeds, oats and fruit! Perfectly balanced weekend breakfast, if you ask me. Or brunch, as the case may be.

It’s also excellent alongside coffee, I might add. Turns out I actually prefer it cold – straight out of the fridge, the topping is nice chewy, as opposed to softer when you leave it out. That’s coconut oil working its magic for you!

I had some nectarines and cherries that I’d frozen about a month ago at peak perfection – really easy to bake straight from frozen for this, but be warned it will be super juicy.

Nothing too crazy to report around here – lots of hiking, mask-wearing, and nerdy jokes. My plants are going gangbusters though, which is always fun to see.

Hard to believe it’s almost August. Since I didn’t go up to camp for a full session this year, my normal summer-touchstone isn’t there, which is making the months do weird things. Happily, stone fruit season goes for awhile, so there is lots of fruit dessert still waiting in the wings. I have a feeling it might be another galette upcoming – I have rye flour and I’m dying to use it in the crust.

I hope you had a relaxing/productive/enjoyable weekend! Sending love from my corner of the internet.

Nectarine & Cherry Crumble

Lightly sweet – more like a really fruit-forward muesli than anything else. Basically just nuts + seeds, oats & fruit! Makes a great summer breakfast straight out of the fridge, with coffee. Gluten free, easily grain free. Dairy free, refined sugar free & vegan. Yield: 1 crumble, serves several. A Wait are those Cookies original.

For the crumble:

1 c almond flour, packed
1 tbsp vanilla
1/4 tsp sea salt, heaping
1 tbsp maple
5 tbsp melted coconut oil
1/2 c chopped walnuts
1/3 c oats* (Omit for grain free)
1/4 c unsweetened coconut
3 tbsp black sesame
1/4 c crystalized ginger

For the filing:

5 nectarines, sliced (I leave the skin on, but you do you)
~1 c bing cherries, pitted
2 tsp tapioca starch + 1/4 c water
1 tbsp maple
zest and juice of two limes

Preheat the oven to 350 and grab some kind of 8″ or 9” baking dish – this is the least fussy recipe ever, so square, round, etc – whatever you have is fine! I used an 8×8” deep baking dish that has a 2 quart capacity. In your baking dish of choice, toss together nectarines, cherries, lime juice and zest. In a smaller bowl, whisk together tapioca starch & water, add maple, then pour over the prepared fruit. Bake for 20 minutes.

While the fruit is baking, make the crumble. In a large bowl, stir everything together: almond flour, vanilla, salt, maple, oats, chopped walnuts and coconut, black sesame, and coconut oil together, then stir in crystallized ginger.

Remove the fruit from the oven, and toss a bit to redistribute. Drop the topping over the fruit, and bake for another 20 minutes until the top is lightly golden brown and the fruit is bubbly. Remove and let cool completely before serving. Excellent with ice cream! It’s also fabulous cold after being refrigerated overnight and served straight out of the fridge – highly recommended. Leftovers keep well covered in the fridge for a day or two but I dare you to have any ;)

June 14, 2020

summer fruit + ice cream = match made in heaven

Hi internet friends!

I hope your weekend was everything it needed to be, whatever that looked like for you!

Mine was full of people who mean a lot to me – backyard bbq with C and his fam, our quaranpod; hiking with C this morning, and din with a close friend this evening – who also gave me a new plant friend and I’m SO EXCITED to welcome Frieda the Staghorn Fern to the Jungelow fam. Pictures forthcoming when it’s light outside :)

I’m sleepy at the moment so am keeping this brief. I had a productive baking weekend – a double batch of cookies for both the bbq and the din tonight (I used a bar of chopped dark mint chocolate in my usual fave cookie recipe – these – and omg cannot recommend enough, SO GOOD); plus I made this crumble!

It was a huge hit with the bbq crowd – and with me, for being infinitely adaptable, fast, and delicious. Not to mention it’s gluten (and easily grain) free, dairy free, refined sugar free, and vegan! Yippee, everyone wins. Super delicious with ice cream – obviously, as summer produce/stone fruit + ice cream are a match made in heaven. C had a little tiny bit leftover with our post-6mi-hike “breakfast” (eaten at 1.30, ha. surely coffee is adequate hiking fuel? I kid. We ate almonds too! And dark chocolate!) and it was a big hit. It keeps pretty well overnight, though the crumble gets a little soft, so I’d recommend eating it the day it’s made – not something you want to make super far in advance. I made mine in the morning & it was perfectly fine after dinner, just to give you a metric.

In other news, hike today was GORG – the views from Bernal were amazing; the air was so clear today.

I also ate my first figs of the season and enjoyed the hell out of them. Also this random, thrown together breakfast salad that I thought looked pretty in my skillet and also was delicious.

Yuck, tomorrow is Monday. Hopefully your reentry into the worklife isn’t too heinous. See you next weekend! <3

Nectarine & Cherry Crumble with Pecans & Ginger

This is stupid easy to throw together – it’s also gluten free (easily grain free, just swap out the oat flour for more almond), dairy free, vegan, and refined sugar free. A Wait are Those Cookies original! Perfect for a summer backyard bbq with your quarantine pod. Easily adaptable to whatever fruit looks good in the market – just grab enough to fill the pan you’re using.

For the crumble:
1/2c almond flour
1/4c oat flour*
Pinch of sea salt
~1/4c crystallized ginger, finely chopped
1/4c unsweetened shredded coconut
1 tbsp maple
2 tsp vanilla
1 tbsp olive oil
1/2c chopped pecans

*sub for an equal amount of almond flour for grain free

For the fruit filling:
~3c pitted cherries
4 small nectarines, sliced
Splash of vanilla
2 tsp tapioca starch whisked into 1/3c water
1 tbsp maple
Zest and juice of two limes

Preheat the oven to 350.
In a deep-ish baking dish (I used a 9″, deep pie plate but any deep dish will do – 9×9, 8×8, 2qt, small casserole, whatever) combine fruit, vanilla, tapioca + water, and lime juice + zest. Bake for 20 min, uncovered, while you prepare the crumble topping.

In a large bowl, stir together almond and oat flour, sea salt, ginger and coconut. Add in maple, vanilla, olive oil and chopped pecans, stirring until everything is incorporated – you want to keep some larger chunks for texture. Take the fruit out of the oven, add the crumble topping, and bake for another 25 minutes, when the fruit should be bubbling and the topping lightly browned. Remove and let cool before serving. Serve with ice cream, because summer fruit and ice cream are a match made in heaven! Keeps decently well in the fridge overnight but the crumble will get a bit soft (it’s still 100% delicious though)

June 7, 2020

summer is for stone fruit

Hi internet friends.

It’s been such a week… I don’t even know where to start with everything. I am doing my damndest to show up, learn, educate myself, listen, and give back – though somehow it doesn’t ever quite feel like enough. But I feel that the least I can do is continue to offer a place to inspire baked goods made with love, to send a little peace out into the world from my corner of the internet.

Today’s baked thing is a cobbler I made for the weekend, with perfect summer fruit and easy drop biscuit topping. It’s whole grain, refined sugar free, and very nearly lactose free – not to mention pretty infinitely adaptable: the flours are very flexible, if you only have one or the other OR decide you don’t want to use either (no judgement here, obviously); the fruit can be swapped around depending on what you have and what looks good in the market.

I’ve never really baked with white nectarines before but I can definitely recommend them – I left the skin on since I felt they might have a tendency to disintegrate. C looooved them – I caught him searching around in the dish a little to find more of them, ha! To be fair, I was on the lookout for extra ginger so it all worked out. This was great for dessert with ice cream and a Marvel movie, and def excellent for bfast this morning as well. No complaints.

Keeping it short today – there is a lot out there to absorb. I hope everyone is doing well – enjoying whatever weather you have and the gorgeous summer produce season!

Nectarine & Berry Cobbler with Whole Wheat, Oat and Ginger Biscuits

A Wait are those Cookies original. Yield: 1 8″ or 9″ cobbler, definitely serves several but also makes excellent breakfast leftovers (and/or just make it for breakfast instead). Fruity, summery & easy.

For the biscuits:

1c whole wheat pastry
1/2c oat flour
1 tbsp maple
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp sea salt
1/4 tsp cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla
3 tbsp unsalted butter, chilled & cut into chunks
3 tbsp ghee (or three more tbsp butter)
3/4 c whole milk plain Kefir (or buttermilk, or thinned out yogurt)
handful of crystallized ginger

For the filling:

~5 smallish white nectarines, sliced (I leave the skin on)
2 pints blackberries
1 pint blueberries
2 tsp tapioca starch
1/4 c water
1/2 tsp vanilla
pinch of sea salt

Preheat the oven to 350.

Combine sliced nectarines and berries in a deep 8×8″ pan (mine holds quarts) or a 9×9 dish, or a small casserole dish, OR a pie plate… basically whatever, as long as it’s deep 2 Mix together tapioca starch, water, vanilla and sea salt and pour everything over the fruit. Let sit while you prep the biscuit dough.

In a large bowl, whisk together both flours, baking powder & soda, salt, and cinnamon. Cut in the butter with your fingers until everything resembles coarse sand and there aren’t any big chunks left. Stir in the maple, kefir vanilla, and ginger pieces until just combined – be careful not to overmix, since nobody likes tough biscuits!

Drop evenly sized biscuit dough blobs onto the fruit, sprinkle with a little coconut sugar, and bake for 35-40 min, until the biscuits are lightly browned and the fruit is bubbling.

Serve with ice cream! Duh. Or eat it for breakfast. Keeps well overnight in the fridge, in its dish covered with foil.

view from above. note the empty coffee cup…

August 17, 2018

Let’s galette it on

Hihi!

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It’s the time of the late summer fruit bounty, which means three types of summer fruit are featured today. This was a bit of a fridge and freezer clean out dessert, which sounds bad but really meant I’d had a glut of cherries and nectarines and frozen them for later. I love when I have a backstock of perfect fruit – turns out nectarines, cherries and raspberries make a stellar combination!

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C and I LOVED this galette. It disappeared quite literally in two sittings! Almondy and fruity: it’s light and makes a perfect summer dessert.

I’m quite proud of it on account of its sweetness – it’s not sweetened, at all! There is only 1 tbsp of coconut sugar in the whole thing, and really only for color – it could easily be omitted. Summer fruit is so sweet by itself that really, additional sweetener isn’t needed.

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We ate it with ice cream (of course) – which I obviously highly recommend – and also for breakfast (well, duh) after a late sleep and a hike; such a nice way to start a day off. Actually I’m not sure we can call it breakfast since we didn’t eat until 1:30p, but hey – it was the first meal of the day… let’s just go with brunch! Ha.

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I took my mama up to camp for some hiking & girl time last weekend – much needed time in my favorite mountains!

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Otherwise, it’s business as usual! I’m trying to get my hands on all the late summer fruit before the season is over… just give me ALL THE FRUIT!

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Happy weekend!

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Nectarine, Cherry, Raspberry and Almond Galette

Grain and gluten free, refined sugar free, pretty much paleo if you eat butter! Delicious all around. Almondy dough and filling set off the summer fruit to perfection, with only one tbsp of coconut sugar added for color – omit if you like! It’s really only decorative. Yield: 1 galette, serves 2 very hungry people (haha not that I speak from experience or anything) or 4-6. A Wait are Those Cookies original.

For the galette dough:

1.5 c almond flour (not meal; you want the finer flour variety)
1/2 c tapioca flour
1/4 tsp fine sea salt
6 tbsp salted butter, chopped (or ghee)
1 egg
1 tbsp vanilla extract

In a food processor or high-power blender (I used a food processor), pulse almond flour, tapioca starch, salt, and butter to combine until it looks like coarse meal. Add in egg and vanilla extract and pulse just until combined. Turn out onto a piece of plastic wrap, shape into a disk and chill in the fridge for at least an hour, or up to overnight.

For the filling:
1/2 c almond butter
2 tsp vanilla
1/2 tsp almond extract
Scant 1/4 tsp sea salt

Stir everything together until smooth. If the almond butter is thick, it can be helpful to heat it just a bit in the microwave.

2 nectarines, sliced
1 c bing cherries, pitted
~1/3 c raspberries
Butter to dot the crust
1 tbsp coconut sugar to sprinkle
Sliced almonds

Once the dough has chilled, preheat the oven to 375. Roll out the dough between two pieces of parchment paper, keeping the circle to about 1/4″ thickness. Peel off the top piece of parchment, and slide the rolled out dough on its parchment onto a baking sheet. Top with the almond filling, spreading it carefully in order to not rip or crack the dough. Add nectarines, cherries & raspberries in whatever pattern you like!

Begin folding up the sides, creasing them together as you go – if the dough is cracking, that’s okay (you can crimp the cracks back together; remember: galettes are forgiving and rustic!); you can use the bottom piece of parchment to help fold up the sides. Dot the fruit with butter, press sliced almonds into the dough on the sides (it’s okay if a few fall off), and sprinkle coconut sugar around the sides. Bake for 35-40 minutes until edges are golden brown — mine came out just fine at 35 minutes, so check accordingly.

Let cool for a few minutes on the baking sheet, then carefully slide the whole galette onto a cooling rack to let it cool completely. Serve with your fave ice cream or whatever of choice! Keeps well covered in foil on the counter or in the fridge.