Peach Dumplings, a love story.

  
 Fresh peach pie was what I was holding the day I met my husband. It was a Fourth of July party & peaches were at their peak ~ paired w/a rich pie crust it was an easy crowd pleaser. Being from the Midwest he had a soft spot for good pies & wanted to hug me after having a slice. 

I knew nothing of fruit dumplings before him. My knowledge of dumplings only covered German, Asian, and Italian territory. Fruit dumplings are rarely seen in the northeast. Luckily I was able to figure out between the Internet & my mother-in-law’s recipe that dumplings were basically mini pies baked in simple syrup. Apple Dumplings were my first attempt; but one June while planning my husband’s “birthday dessert” I suggested peach dumplings. They turned out better than we ever expected and my peach pie may be retired for a bit because these are so much better. 

For wrapping technique check this picture (from Burger Voyage‘s peach dumpling recipe).  And please – check out several peach dumpling recipes (I’ve even seen an interesting short cut version that calls for Orange soda in place of simple syrup). Look around, find which one speaks to you — have several friends make varying recipes and do a swap. Whatever you do — make sure to try them out, especially during peach season.

Belle’s Peach Dumplings

Dumpling Dough
2 cups All Purpose Flour

1/2 tsp salt

1/2 cup lard (vegetable shortening is fine too)

1/4 cup butter

5 Tbs Milk

Mix flour & salt together. “Cut in” lard & butter using two knives, pastry blender, or a food processor (just a couple pulses if using the processor), until dough is crumbly and fat chunks are smaller than pea size. Sprinkle milk over mixture and mix until just combined and dough makes a ball (do not over mix). Chill dough in the fridge for at least 1 hour. (Dough can be stored in fridge wrapped in plastic wrap for up to 2 days if needed.)

Dumpling Syrup
1/2 cup sugar

1/2 cup water

2 Tbs butter

Combine ingredients in a small sauce pot, heat gently until butter is melted, do not boil. Syrup can be made before making peach filling and set aside.

Peach Filling
6 cups sliced fresh peaches (1 & 1/2 lbs)

2/3 cup sugar

2 Tbs lemon juice

Combine ingredients in a large bowl, mix gently w/rubber spatula or toss w/your hands. Peach filling should be made right before rolling out dough.

Assembly
Preheat oven to 350

Roll dough to 1/8 inch thickness (use as much flour as you need to keep the dough from being sticky while rolling). Cut into rectangles 6″x3″. Place about half a peach’s worth of slices in the middle and wrap dough around peaches overlapping dough & place dumpling seam down in a 9×13 pan. There will be a decent amount of sugar/flour peach “goo” left behind in your peach bowl, just discard this. Pour dumpling syrup over dumplings and bake for about 1 hour or until dumplings are golden brown.

Enjoy warm w/ice cream, or in a bowl w/milk. It’s equally delicious at room temp or refrigerated & I absolutely recommend refrigerating any leftovers.

Donut Bar in San Diego

As you may or may not know, I’m a Jersey Girl — born and raised, but completely defected to lovely SoCal. People love their Dunkin’ Donuts where I come from, and I know a number of transplants frustrated by the lack of Dunkins found here in California, (I hear that some military bases have them, but I have yet to come across a “civilian” Dunkin in California). Truth is, that’s totally fine by me because I think the small, local, family-owned SoCal donut places are one of the things I love about living out here. I imagine most of these places produce donuts in small, handmade batches (although I am not positive), so the idea of an artisan donut shop in San Diego sounds a little redundant to me. But stuffing my face w/new donuts is far more important than semantics.

Donut Bar on B street between 6th & 7th in downtown San Diego opened their doors on March 23rd 2013. I personally heard about them on twitter, and began following them on Instagram, drooling over their inventive flavor creations. Demand and proper use of Social Media seems to be part of the driving force behind this bakery. Daily menus are released via their Facebook page, twitter account, Instagram feed, & Tumblr. Select you favorite media and follow away, but plan on getting there early – because they close as soon as they are sold out, adding to the demand factor of this place.

I finally got my butt in gear this past Friday and made it to Donut Bar. Parking was easy, but mainly because I was there by 7:30am on a Friday – before any of the meters click (8am). Paying for parking on top of the price of artisan donuts would be a drag, so I considered this a big “early bird” win. The donuts range from 1$-3$ and a small coffee will only add a dollar to your purchase. On to the donuts…

Old Fashioned w/Madagascar vanilla glaze – I love old fashioned donuts. They make me feel like I’m having a breakfast version of funnel cake. These did not disappoint, adequate and appropriate greasiness, tender inside, thick sugary glaze. I must admit, the was no vanilla fragrance, but that did not really diminish the old fashioned donut for me at all.

Creme Brûlée- crunchy caramel glaze on top of a yeast-raised, custard filled donut. A nice effect, and good execution of a great idea ~ the custard was not too sweet and pleasantly balanced the hard caramel on top. But the hard caramel top has more of a candy texture and less of the “shatter” texture creme brûlée is famous for. I’ve noticed that earlier incarnations appeared to have that shattery top, achieved by blow torch & sugar — but it is hard to maintain that shell for hours before it “weeps” and turns into a soggy mess. I think Donut Bar has done a great job answering that issue with a thin, hard crunchy caramel glaze.

Key Lime – tangy glaze sprinkled with crumbs, balanced by the not overly tangy custard filling. This donut could’ve been overwhelming sweet had they not balanced it out and I truly appreciated that. It’s a donut, not a pie – and donut bar pulls it off well. I would not object to more graham crumbs on top, though.

Boysenberry – first of all, gorgeous color. That pink donut makes the whole photo above, in my opinion. This donut was light & fluffy, not overly sugary on the glaze, and had a wonderful “jammy” quality to it. It almost felt like a light answer to a heavy jelly donut. I was honestly surprised by how much I liked this one.

Maple Bacon – I got this one purely out of curiosity and waited to split it with my husband. I’m not a huge meats w/sweets gal, but I understand the attraction. It has a strange smell that WILL take over the box if you get it. My husband claimed it smelled a little like dog food, and I have to agree with him. It didn’t taste like dog food, though. The maple icing was delicious, so much so that I found myself picking the bacon off of the last few bites of my half.

Will I return? Maybe. Getting up early, finding parking, and beating the long Saturday line is not worth it in my opinion. I’ve wanted to try the Coconut Cream as well as the Peach donut, but they’ve clashed with my schedule so far. If you’re close enough by foot — check ’em out (and let me know how the peach & coconut cream donuts are if you try them).

Donut Bar ~ Artisan Donuts in San Diego
631 B Street
San Diego, CA 92101
Mon-Fri 7AM – sold out
Sat 8AM – sold out
Facebook.com/donutbar

Sprinkles Neapolitan Cupcake

Who doesn’t like secret menus? They make you feel special, on the inside track, “in the know”. Never-frozen-Burger Chain In N Out has it’s very own secret menu most regulars and non-regulars have heard of. One of my favorite In N Out secret items is the Neapolitan shake, so you can imagine how giddy I was to learn that Sprinkles was planning a secret menu containing a Neapolitan cupcake.

I first learned about it on the Sprinkles iPhone app (I live walking distance from a Sprinkles shop; don’t judge me). The app doesn’t describe this cupcake even though all the other cupcakes are described on the app. Frustrating for some, but it adds to the allure of the “secret menu” and gives us food bloggers something to tell you about.

As you can see above, its a vanilla cupcake topped with strawberry icing which is enrobed in chocolate ganache.

First the cupcake: Sprinkles vanilla cupcake has never been one that I craved. Sure, it’s moist, not too sweet – but I’ve always felt that its primary function has been to highlight the frosting above it.

Next: Strawberry Icing w/chocolate ganache ~ I personally love Sprinkles Strawberry cupcakes, especially the icing. It smells like fresh strawberry ice cream! I’ve even found copycat recipes to recreate entire cakes of the stuff at home. That being said, I was a little concerned about the chocolate ganache overpowering the icing. The ganache was thin and soft, allowing me to slice through it easily, but w/obvious smear marks. It had the consistency of almost hard magic shell topping but with a deeper chocolate flavor. The layer was honestly thin enough to not overpower the strawberry notes.

The combo: it’s all good together. The vanilla cake itself acts as a canvas to further explore the strawberry/chocolate balance. I think they’ve done a nice job.

Want to give it a try? Just ask for it – it’s not written on the menu, it’s not in the case. Just ask for the Neapolitan and they’ll know what you mean 😉

Burger Lounge in Hillcrest ~ plenty safe for preggo’s

At 17 weeks pregnant, I am discovering that I have the appetite of a teenager going through a growth spurt. After a couple hours of walking around the San Diego Zoo with my friends and their little ones, I made a solo escape to grab my most favorite fish burrito at a close by tiny taco shop/deli (but that burrito is another story for another time ;-).

Parked my car, began to make my way towards the burrito, but was stopped in my tracks by the smell of grass fed beef being perfectly seared. I had to have a cheeseburger – it had unquestionably won the craving war.
…
I am not Burger Lounge newbie – A couple of years ago, I went on a food safari to check out their La Jolla location, dragging the husband w/me on this particular quest. Service was drab, the bun was mediocre, and the fries created no real memory for me. But the beef was grass fed, and if you haven’t tried grass fed beef — well, it’s just better. Grass fed beef tastes the way I imagine most drool-triggering cartoon burgers to taste. We never came back to that Burger Lounge again, but we now use and love grass fed beef at home. But I digress…

My impression of the La Jolla location was not going to stop this craving. “Beef & cheese or bust” seemed to be chanting in my head. The cashier smiled at me, took my order, explained that their burgers were prepared medium, w/a pink center, and asked if that was alright. I let him know although that was my normal preference, my pregnancy required me to order it well done. He seemed surprised (my bump is still quite modest), congratulated me & assured me that the burger would be well done. I point out that he was surprised only to show that they mention this to ALL customers, which I think is a good idea because some people who are dealing w/suppressed immune systems, (pregnant woman for example), can forget that having a delicious medium burger is off limits. I also ordered a cola and was pleased to find that they carry cane sweetened soda – which is just tastes better that corn sweetened soda.

The cheeseburger came out quickly – granted it was already one in the afternoon, lunch rush appeared to be over. It was the classic, minus pickles & mustard. The patty was clearly hand made, with a great crust that sealed in the juiciness of the burger. It was slightly heavy on the ketchup for my taste, but that might have been to compensate for my “no mustard” request. The fries were crisp, but fully went up a notch when dipped in the pleasantly herby, house made ranch. I happily made the burger & fries disappear and was on my way again.

I am so impressed w/this location. The food is so good that they don’t have to be nice, and yet they have fantastic, attentive, thoughtful staff. Well done, Burger Lounge. You’ve been added to my favorite spots in Hillcrest. Hopefully one day I’ll overcome the beef craving to try one of you vege burgers that I heard so many good things about. Until then, I’m the pregnant lady drooling while she orders her grass-fed burger well done. Thanks for taking such good care of me!

Burger Lounge Hillcrest
406 University Ave
San Diego, CA 92103

BurgerLounge.com

menu exploration inhibited ~ the delicious monkeys on my back

the addict in me…

We all like to imagine ourselves as open-minded; and many foodies believe that they have an open palate. Even more foodies delight in exploring menus of new found spots or new menus of old favorites. What happens, though, when you find that perfect menu item? For those of us with an addictive personality, we find a way to trick our friends & companions into eating at the same old places again & again because we can’t help ourselves and that is how a rut is born. Here are six of the (delicious) monkeys currently on my back:

PF Chang‘s Shrimp w/Candied Walnuts ~ batter-fried shrimp, candied walnuts, and honeydew melon balls all tossed in this sweet, barely tangy sauce. The husband and I love getting this together, and we have a goal of talking others into ordering it w/us when we join them at PF Chang’s.

Gaglione Brothers in Point Loma Cheese Whiz Steak. I know, I know Cheese whiz, wtf? In the great Pat’s vs. Geno’s debate, I’m a Pat’s girl all the way. Luckily, at Gaglione Brothers, they do them either way and most importantly, they get Amoroso’s Rolls shipped from Philly. And yes, the bread makes ALL the difference when it comes to cheesesteaks.

“Fresh brioche stuffed with mascarpone and topped with vanilla creme, salted caramel, agave soaked strawberries and toasted coconut” OMG French Toast @ Snooze in Hillcrest, San Diego. The name always makes me feel silly ordering it, but that is completely forgotten once it reaches the table. Snooze allows you to mix & match a savory benedict w/a sweet item, so I’m at least able to explore their benny menu while scarfing down my french toast.

The Fried Shrimp Plate @ Point Loma Seafoods ~ Super simple, it’s just good shrimp breaded in panko crumbs and fried in oil that is never allowed to go rancid. It’s served w/the traditional cocktail sauce and I’ll dabble in that, but what I’m really there for is the tartar sauce, (and I hate regular tartar sauce). It’s different – fresh, lemony, herby, perfect on most seafoods. They also make a killer batter fried alaskan halibut plate (not always available, and slightly on the pricey side). I only know about this menu item by snagging a bite or two from my husband’s plate 😉

Fish Tacos – as a NJ native, those two words together used to cause more giggling than drooling. South Beach Bar & Grille in Ocean Beach, San Diego makes the best ones I’ve had. Grilled Wahoo, flour tortilla, a sprinkling of cheese, purple cabbage, and a pico de gallo that just makes you wonder, “how’d they get so much flavor and freshness into that pico?!?”

Lucha Libre‘s Classic California Burrito ~ Carne asada, fries, cheese, pico, & sour cream. The California Burrito is indigenous to San Diego and most meat-loving San Diegans know where their favorite one is found. Lucha Libre is not only delicious, but fun w/a Mexican Wrestling theme. Lucha Libre is beloved to many and has very long lines, so I often phone-in my burrito fix. For this reason, I try to break out of my rut by ordering tacos when I’m lucky enough to snag a table there. Even still, there’s a Queso Taco I’m already starting to ‘itch” for…

The BELT

rules for my favorite sandwich, The BELT
• a perfect BLT only gets better with an egg or two in it.
• great bread also makes a world of difference. (Marbled rye is best)
• NO floppy bacon!
• real mayonnaise always, even though we’re spreading it lightly.
• out-of-season tomatoes are not against the law, but require a little salt love.

If all else fails, head to the awesome ocean side, no frills Tower Two Cafe because they make a perfect one. Enjoy a mimosa bucket while you’re at it!

Leftovers you can’t live without

We all have ’em. That one item you MUST take home with you to punish under your own terms (preferably when no one is looking 😉 ).

For some, it remains the same each year. A steady item, something tried & true like pumpkin pie w/cool whip, or their Mom’s homemade stuffing.

For others it is a carousel of change. I’ve been lucky enough to share Thanksgiving with so many people in so many different places, it’s been a cornucopia of items over the years.

This year was tough~ a perfect deep fried turkey was the pinnacle of the dinner.But the chocolate pudding pie w/a hazelnut crust still has me swooning.

I’ll give credit where credit is due, and I will absolutely take credit for my own ideas ~ but this one is an odd ball. I know I ate it at a Holiday Potluck in the Tasting room at Domaine Chandon – my coworker was kind enough to share the recipe with me. It’s a simple pie. I even use instant pudding. The shining star of this dessert is the crust. Chop your hazelnuts as fine as possible (try to buy the blanched ones, but it’s no big deal if they’ve got their skins).

Chocolate Pudding Pie w/Hazelnut Crust

Crust – 9″ deep dish pie dish, preheat oven to 450°F
1 cup flour
1/2 cup butter
1/2 cup finely chopped hazelnuts

combine flour & butter using food processor or pastry blender or “cut in” method. add hazelnuts and mix with hands until dough is consistent. press into pie plate to make an even 1/4″ thick crust. bake at 450°F for 10-12 minutes or until light golden brown. allow to cool.

Filling
8 oz package cream cheese, softened
1 cup powdered sugar
1 cup “cool whip” (Trader Joes has an all natural “cool whip” called House Whip, and Sprouts sells one called True Whip. Both are better for you and tastier than the original! More on that another time)
1 large box instant chocolate pudding
3 cups milk
Grated chocolate and/or mini chocolate chips for garnish.

combine cream cheese w/powdered sugar using an electric mixer until smooth. spread into cooled hazelnut crust. combine instant pudding w/milk using electric mixer for at least 3 minutes or until pudding thickens. spread pudding on top of cream cheese layer. decorate top using House Whip & chocolate. chill for at least an hour before serving.

What was the leftover you’re still dreaming about, and/or still eating?