Fruit Archives - Chattavore

9 Amazing Summer Fruit Desserts

July 10, 2020

One of the best things about summer is the fruit! Of course it’s delicious on its own, but how can you resist these 9 amazing summer fruit desserts?

a photo collage showing 9 different summer fruit desserts

Summer fruit desserts are one of my favorite things! Summer produce is one of the best parts of summer, in my opinion. And while there is really nothing better than a perfectly ripe fresh peach that doesn’t need a single grain of sugar added to it, summer fruits are amazing to bake with. Pies, cakes, tarts, cobblers…there’s really no limit to the desserts that you can make with your farmer’s market haul. Here are 9 of my favorites!

Strawberries

The first sign of summer is fresh strawberries. They don’t stick around for long, but a beautiful fresh strawberry is like nothing that you’ll find in the grocery store in the middle of winter. I’ve got quite a few strawberry desserts to share with you!

Strawberry Pie

This is a slight adaptation of my grandmother’s recipe. She was an amazing cook, but of all the things that she made, this was one of the things that got me most excited. No red Jell-o in sight!

Check out this recipe

From her book of handwritten retro recipe cards and clippings, my grandmother's strawberry pie might be my favorite thing she made. It's easy and so tasty! | recipe from Chattavore.com

Strawberry Cream Pie With Pretzel Crust

If you mash together my strawberry pie recipe and that strawberry pretzel salad that you will find at every southern potluck, you’ll get this pie. With a salty pretzel crust, a tangy cream cheese layer, and luscious strawberries, this pie has it all!

Check out this recipe

Strawberry cream pie with pretzel crust is the pie of my dreams! | chattavore.com

Strawberry Fluff

I’m not going to try to sell fluff to you as a “salad”, but as a dessert, this fluff is easy and just so good! Whipped cream, cream cheese, strawberries, and marshmallows…I mean, how can you go wrong?

Check out this recipe

Who doesn't love strawberry fluff? This version is made with fresh strawberries, fresh whipped cream, cream cheese, and marshmallows. | Recipe from Chattavore.com

Blueberries

As I type this, I just picked a pint jar full of blueberries from the bushes in my front yard, and that makes me so happy. I probably won’t get enough to make any of these delicious desserts, but supermarket blueberries (even frozen!) are amazing here!

Blueberry Dump Cake From Scratch

I’m guessing that we can all agree that “dump cake” really needs a new name…but I already made over the recipe. Usually made with cake mix, this dump cake is made from scratch with pantry ingredients and it is perfect with a scoop of ice cream on top!

Check out this recipe

Blueberry Creme Brûlée

Creme brûlée is my husband’s favorite dessert. It seems intimidating, but really, it’s so easy! I love to put a blueberry compote in the bottom of the ramekin before I bake the brûlées. So delish!

Check out this recipe

Blueberry creme brûlée is a simple but fancy dessert that is a perfect use for fresh summer blueberries (but is just as good with frozen)! | Recipe from Chattavore.com

Blueberry Pineapple Pie

After watching a documentary about pies and learning about a pie called the “Blue Hawaiian” I had to figure out how to make it myself. This pie pairs blueberry and pineapple with a streusel topping. Unexpected and amazing!

Check out this recipe

Think of all things summery and you have blueberry pineapple pie - complete with a buttery coconut crumb topping, it's summer at its best! | recipe from Chattavore.com

The Best Blueberry Pie

The name says it all. This pie is loaded with blueberries with a beautiful golden crust. Serve it with ice cream or whipped cream. Either way, it lives up to its name!

Check out this recipe

Peaches

I think peaches may be my favorite fruit, so its odd that I really don’t have that many peach recipes on my blog. But the two that I have are pretty great, if I do say so myself.

Peach Breakfast Crisp

A summery dessert that doubles as breakfast? Yes, please! This peach crisp is perfect for dessert with ice cream or with yogurt for breakfast.

Check out this recipe

Peach Fried Pies With Raspberry Sauce

A callback to peach melba, these fried pies are full of peachy flavor with perfectly golden crust and a delicious raspberry dipping sauce.

Check out this recipe

Seasonal peaches and raspberry sauce pair perfectly in this Southern take on peach Melba, fried pies! | chattavore.com

French Yogurt Cake

January 2, 2019

French yogurt cake is a great way to use up the yogurt that is hanging out in your fridge. It’s so simple, made with ingredients you probably already have, and bright and fresh with citrus flavors! Yogurt, eggs, oil, sugar, flour, citrus, and powdered sugar – that’s all you need to make this super-simple cake! I always seem to have a half-eaten tub of yogurt and some on-the-brink citrus (lemons, limes, clementines…you name it, I have it) in the fridge and this is the perfect way to use them up!

[Read more…]

How to Make Cranberry Sauce

November 12, 2018

What are your thoughts on cranberry sauce? Do you hate it? Or do you like the log of cranberry sauce that comes out of a can, complete with the lines from the can completely intact? If fresh, homemade cranberry sauce is your Thanksgiving style, then this tutorial on how to make cranberry sauce is perfect for you!

Click here to save this recipe on Pinterest!

When I was growing up, my grandmother always made cranberry relish for Thanksgiving dinner. Fresh cranberries, whole oranges, and sugar, all ground up together. No cooking. I liked it okay but the bitterness of the orange pith made it a little much for my young tastebuds.

We really never ate the cranberry sauce that came out of a can, and honestly, I can’t even remember when or where I first tried it. I do remember, though, that when I did try it, I realized that I had been missing out on the deliciousness that is cranberry sauce.

Homemade Cranberry Sauce

And then I figured out how to make homemade cranberry sauce. I fell in love, hard, and realized that the canned stuff that you slice is just gateway cranberry sauce. I promise you, canned cranberry sauce in no way compares to homemade cranberry sauce.

Cranberries are a truly amazing little fruit. They have little pockets of air in them, and as you cook them they pop open. Full of their own natural pectin, they thicken their own sauce without the addition of packaged pectin or other thickeners. Literally, all you need to make a delicious cranberry sauce are three ingredients:

Fresh cranberries
Sugar
Water

Cranberry Orange Sauce

I love how the flavor of orange pairs with the flavor of cranberry, so I always use some orange juice and zest to give my homemade cranberry sauce a little zip. But, if you don’t like orange or have another reason not to use it in your sauce, then just leave it out!
Click here to save this recipe to your Pinterest holiday cooking and sauce boards!

I call myself a cranberry hoarder because the second that cranberries show up in my grocery store, I start throwing a bag or two into my cart every week so that I can have frozen cranberries available all year. That way, I can have homemade cranberry sauce anytime I want it. Which means that year-round I can make my Instant Pot turkey breast and some cranberry sauce and have a Thanksgiving sandwich whenever. I. Want it.

And that, my friends, is a reason to be happy.

Shared on Meal Plan Monday on Southern Bite and The Weekend Potluck on The Country Cook!

Mary

Yield: 2 1/4 cups

How to Make Cranberry Sauce

This recipe is adapted from Smitten Kitchen , whose recipe is adapted from Ocean Spray .

5 minPrep Time:

15 minCook Time:

20 minTotal Time:

Save Recipe

Print Recipe

My Recipes
My Lists
My Calendar

Ingredients

1 12-ounce bag fresh or cranberries (I freeze bags of fresh cranberries, and you can just use them straight from the freezer)
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 cup water OR the juice of one large orange plus enough water to make a cup
zest of one orange, optional

Instructions

Combine all ingredients except orange zest, if using, in a medium saucepan. Set over medium heat. Cook, stirring frequently, until the sauce has thickened and all berries have burst. I use the spoon to gently mash the berries against the side of the pan to make sure they all burst. This takes 10-15 minutes total.
Stir in the orange zest, if using. Place the sauce into a covered container or jar and refrigerate for at least 4 hours. It will keep in the refrigerator for up to two weeks or up to two months in the freezer.

https://chattavore.com/how-to-make-cranberry-sauce/

Blueberry Dump Cake From Scratch

June 13, 2018

Knowing how to make dump cake from scratch is a valuable skill to have. Forgive the name but dump cake literally just requires dumping ingredients in a pan and baking them. This blueberry dump cake from scratch is a delicious, perfect summer recipe, and you probably have all the ingredients you need!

Click here to save this recipe for later!

Dump Cake?

First of all, let me apologize to you for the name of this recipe. I hate the term “dump cake”. I mean, I get that it is called that because you literally dump the ingredients into a pan and bake them, but GAH. It just sounds very unappetizing. Ditto for “dump dinners” (I have seen a cookbook in my favorite local used book store with this name and I. Just. Can’t.).

But alas, when you write a blog you have to give the people what they are looking for, and according to Pinterest and Google, people are looking for dump cakes. Or, if they are like me, they are looking for “dump cake from scratch”.

The dump cakes from my previous experience are absolutely delicious and are made with a few basic ingredients:

Canned pie fillings
Cake mix
Butter
Maybe some other ingredients like canned pineapple, brown sugar, etc., but these are not necessary.

Dump Cake from Scratch!

And you guys know me…I have an insatiable need to make everything from scratch (i.e. without a mix or a can). Mostly because I know that I am always going to have some sort of fresh or frozen fruit, butter, and dry ingredients for a cake in the house. But also because I really do, at least in theory, try to avoid processed food as much as possible (though I have not been as good at this lately. Stress, am I right?).

I did a little poking around the interwebs trying to figure out how to make a dump cake from scratch. I found a recipe on Simply Recipes and riffed on that a bit. My filling follows their formula but my dry cake is actually a divided recipe for yellow cake from the book The Perfect Cake from America’s Test Kitchen, which I somehow miraculously managed to score the Kindle edition of last week for $3.99. A miracle indeed, because ATK books never go on sale!

I used frozen blueberries for mine, but you could definitely use a variety of fruits instead. And while this may not be a literal “dump and go” recipe like the original dump cake, dump cake from scratch is still dead simple and you probably have the ingredients in your house:

fruit
sugar
cornstarch
flour
baking powder
baking soda
butter

Easy, right? And because when I use a bowl for dry ingredients I just wipe it out with a towel and put it back, the only dishes that I dirtied were the pan and the bowl I used to melt the butter. 100% worth it for this delicious dessert that is perfect for summer and that, by the way, I baked in my Breville Smart Oven so I didn’t even have to heat up my kitchen.

Oh yeah – vanilla ice cream is non-negotiable. Don’t even try.

Shared on The Weekend Potluck on The Country Cook!

Click here to save this recipe to your Pinterest baking or cake boards!

This post contains affiliate links. This means that if you click the link and make a purchase from Amazon, I will receive a small commission. This does not affect the cost to you. For more information, please see my disclosures. Thank you for supporting my blog!

Products used for this recipe:

Mary

Yield: 1 9x13 inch cake

Blueberry Dump Cake From Scratch

This recipe is adapted from Simply Recipes and from the book A Perfect Cake from America's Test Kitchen.

10 minPrep Time:

45 minCook Time:

55 minTotal Time:

Save Recipe

Print Recipe

My Recipes
My Lists
My Calendar

Ingredients

For the filling

3 pounds fresh or frozen fruit (there is no need to thaw frozen fruit)
1/2 cup granulated sugar
2 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch
pinch salt

For the cake

1 1/4 cups all-purpose flour
3/4 cup granulated sugar
3/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/8 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks or 12 tablespoons) unsalted butter, melted
Vanilla ice cream, for serving

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 375? Fahrenheit.
In a 9x13 inch pan, combine the fruit with the sugar, cornstarch, and salt.
In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the flour, sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Sprinkle the dry cake ingredients evenly over the fruit mixture.
Use a spoon to drizzle the melted butter evenly over the dry cake mixture.
Bake the cake for 35-45 minutes, until the cake is light golden on top and the fruit is bubbling. Frozen fruit may need to bake slightly longer (my fruit was frozen and I baked my cake for 55 minutes). There may be a few small patches of dry ingredients on top. I just smoothed these with a spoon.
Cool the cake for at least an hour before serving. I know that this is a difficult step but eating the cake too soon will result in unpleasant mouth burns! Vanilla ice cream is non-optional!

https://chattavore.com/blueberry-dump-cake-from-scratch/

Apple Blondies with Walnuts and Whiskey Caramel + Video

September 10, 2017

Apple blondies with walnuts and whiskey caramel are (1) rich; (2) decadent; (3) perfect for Fall; and (4) made in one bowl. ONE BOWL! Scroll down for the video.

Click here to save this recipe on Pinterest!

Apples = Fall Food

Apple Blondies? Yep, apple blondies. With walnuts. Maybe I’ve mentioned here a time or two that apples are pretty much a quintessential Fall food for me? One day recently I was struck with the need for a chewy, cinnamon-y bar cookie full of apples. Apple-walnut blondies. And they would be topped with caramel sauce. With salt. And whiskey. Definitely whiskey.

One Bowl Baking

It didn’t take me much digging to find a recipe that was perfect for adapting to make exactly what I needed. Yvonne Ruperti’s book One-Bowl Baking has a whole section devoted to bar cookies, which makes sense because what use is a bar cookie if it isn’t easy? Brownie, blondies, lemon squares, magic bars…they are perfect desserts because they come together quickly and don’t require rotating through cookie sheets over and over and over.

Whiskey Caramel

It took a little playing around to get the recipe right…turns out that when you throw a couple of apples into the batter it adds enough volume to require 15 or 20 more minutes of baking. No biggie, though. That just gives you a little extra time to stir together the caramel, which I promise you won’t want to omit. Though you can leave out the whiskey (I used Chattanooga Whiskey, by the way) if you must. And the salt, though I really have no idea why you would do that.

Moderation is Key

Another thing…if you bake these apple blondies in an 8×8 pan you will look at the pan and think to yourself, “Maybe I should just cut nine squares.” Don’t do it. If you do, you will end up with a stomach ache. No one really ever thinks of fruity desserts as rich, but this one, full of butter and white sugar and brown sugar, is, especially when accompanied by homemade caramel and some ice cream (not pictured…it really doesn’t need ice cream at all).

After the 9-bar debacle, I made these again and took them to work, this time cut into 32 pieces. I came home with 4 pieces. I’d call that success. I didn’t share my caramel, because I wanted to hoard it in my fridge for dipping apples and pear slices and spoons into. And that’s exactly what I did.

Apple blondies with walnuts and whiskey caramel are perfect for a get-together or just a fun snack or dessert for your family!

Click here to save this recipe to your Pinterest Fall and Baking boards!

This post contains an affiliate link. This means that if you click the link and make a purchase on Amazon, I will receive a small commission. This does not affect the cost to you. For more information, please see my disclosures. Thank you for supporting my blog!

Shared on Meal Plan Monday on Southern Plate!

Mary

Yield: 9-16 blondies

Apple Blondies with Walnuts and Whiskey Caramel

The blondies are adapted from the book One-Bowl Baking by Yvonne Ruperti. The caramel is adapted from Sally's Baking Addiction .

15 minPrep Time:

40 minCook Time:

55 minTotal Time:

Save Recipe

Print Recipe

My Recipes
My Lists
My Calendar

Ingredients

For the Caramel

1 cup (200 grams) granulated sugar
6 tablespoons ((90 grams) unsalted butter, cut into 6 pieces
1/2 cup (120 ml) heavy cream
2 tablespoons whiskey (I used Chattanooga Whiskey)
1 teaspoon kosher salt

For the Blondies

13 tablespoons (185 grams) unsalted butter, softened
1 2/3 cup (330 grams) packed brown sugar, light or dark
1 1/4 teaspoons salt
1 tablespoon vanilla extract
2 large eggs
1 3/4 cup (245 grams) all-purpose flour
1/4 teaspoon baking powder
1/4 teaspoon baking soda
1 teaspoon cinnamon
2 medium apples, peeled, cored, and chopped (I used MacIntosh)
3/4 cup (85 grams) walnuts, toasted and coarsely chopped

Instructions

For the caramel: using a wooden spoon, stir the sugar in a medium saucepan over medium heat until melted and light golden in color. Be sure to stir constantly and don’t let it burn! Add the butter, one tablespoon at a time, stirring each until melted before adding the next. Be careful as the sugar will bubble when add the butter and boiling sugar is essentially the same as boiling hot lava. Once all the butter is melted, add the heavy cream and, with the heat turned off, the whiskey. Turn the heat back on and boil for one minute, continuing to stir constantly. Remove from the heat and stir in the salt. Allow to cool until no longer molten before serving.
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Liberally butter an 8-inch square baking pan.
In a large bowl, use a sturdy spoon to stir together the butter, brown sugar, salt, and vanilla until well combined and smooth. Add the eggs, one at a time, and stir until completely combined.
Add the flour, baking powder and baking soda, and cinnamon. Stir until well combined. Fold in the apples and walnuts.
Spread the batter in the prepared baking pan. Bake for 35-40 minutes, until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool completely in the pan then cut into 9 or 16 pieces. Serve with warm caramel.

https://chattavore.com/apple-blondies-whiskey-caramel/

Print the recipe for apple-walnut blondies!