This spicy galette makes an interesting dessert with the sweetness of mango and apricot fruit, as well as savory with the creaminess of stilton, crunchy pepitas, and the perfection of a cornmeal pastry crust.
Stilton cheese takes its name from the village of Stilton, in the east of England. White Stilton has a light, fresh, slightly acidic flavor that makes it a perfect partner for fruit.
White Stilton with mango & ginger is a blended cheese which incorporates mango and ginger to impart a sweet, savory intense flavor to the traditional Stilton cheese. Stilton on its own is extremely creamy and delicious but the addition of fruit accords the cheese a new dimension. As it melts, the unusual combination of the mango adding a fruity flavor and the ginger adding a mildly warming, spiced overtone. White Stilton with mango & ginger is perfect for a breakfast or dessert cheese.
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Spicy Apricot Mango Stilton Galette
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Instructions
Pastry
In a small bowl, combine sour cream & ice water; set aside. In a large bowl, whisk together flour, cornmeal, sugar & salt. Using a pastry blender or fingertips, cut in the butter until mixture resembles BOTH coarse crumbs & small peas. Sprinkle the cold sour cream mixture over dough, 1 Tbsp at a time, tossing with a fork to evenly distribute it. After you have added all the sour cream mixture, dough should be moist enough to stick together when pressed; if not, add additional cold water, 1 tsp at a time. Do not overwork dough.
Press dough into a disk shape & wrap in plastic wrap. Refrigerate for at least 2 hours. The dough can be kept in the refrigerator for a day or two or it can be wrapped airtight & frozen for a month. Thaw, still wrapped in refrigerator.
Filling
In a saucepan over medium heat, add apple cider vinegar, brown sugar, ginger, anise seeds, cloves, pepper, cardamom, cinnamon & sea salt. When mixture starts to bubble, add dried apricots & mangoes. Cook, stirring often, until fruit is soft. Set aside to cool.
Preheat the oven to 425 F.
On a large sheet of parchment paper, roll or press out chilled pastry into a 13-inch circle.
Spread mixture evenly over dough, leaving about a 1 1/2-inch border. Gently fold pastry over filling, pleating to hold it in. Sprinkle with crumbled Stilton cheese. Brush with egg wash (if using).
Bake 35-45 minutes until filling bubbles up & crust is golden. Remove from oven & sprinkle with pepita seeds. Serve.
Recipe Notes
- If filling seems too dry, add a bit of water or apple juice.
This simple but elegant dessert lets us enjoy a taste of the tropics right here at home this summer. It’s probably not hard to guess that Brion & I enjoy the flavor of mango by the number of recipes I’ve featured on the site.
The word brulee simply means burnt in French and we’ve come to know it through the dessert called ‘crème brulee’. If its not familiar, it is simply a soft custard that’s sprinkled with sugar and then caramelized with a butane torch. The surface bubbles and then hardens to a paper thin, crisp crackly sweet crust that shatters when you dig in.
I think mangoes are so good, they don’t need anything done or added to them but a few extra touches can make it into a simple but elegant dessert.
For this mango brulee, I have sprinkled brown sugar and spices over the cut sides and placed them under the broiler (or use a brulee torch) until the sugar has browned and bubbled. The sugar forms a thin crust, just like the classic French crème brulee.
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Mango Brulee
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Instructions
Turn on the broiler; position the rack 6-inches below the heat source. Line a baking sheet with foil.
Cut through the mango on either side of the pit as evenly as possible.
In a small bowl, combine sugar & spices & sprinkle on top of each mango slice. Place mango slices on the prepared baking sheet. Make sure the mango slices are level so the sugar does not spill out. If you need to, use crumpled foil paper to steady the mango.
Broil for 3 minutes or until the sugar has caramelized.
When it comes to some of the most common baked fruit desserts, there are a number of concoctions that go by many names. All work with whatever fruit is in season (or available) and in any shape pan.
The question is, what makes a cobbler, crisp, crumble, Betty or buckle different? To start with, a cobbler is so named because the topping is made with dollops of biscuit dough, not a smooth sheet of dough like a pie. The irregular surface, once baked, resembles the surfaces of streets paved with rough cobbles.
A crisp has a topping made with a combination of oatmeal, flour, butter & sugar (sometimes nuts). This topping completely covers the fruit and is baked.
Crumbles are very similar to crisps, however, usually they do not contain oats.
A Betty, although similar to a crisp has no oatmeal in the topping which is layered throughout instead of solely on top of the dessert.
Last, but not least is the buckle, which consists of fruit and cake baked together with a streusel topping. As it bakes, the fruit and streusel topping make the cake ‘buckle’.
This mango cobbler is a delicious dessert and a nice alternative to peach or apple cobbler. Fresh mangoes are peeled and sliced or diced and then simmered with a thickened syrup mixture. If you don’t have fresh fruit, feel free to use frozen sliced or diced mangoes in the cobbler.
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Mango Cobbler
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Instructions
Fruit
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In a large, heavy saucepan, combine mango, sugar, butter, flour, cornstarch, vanilla & salt. Cook over medium heat, stirring regularly until bubbly & thickened. Place in a baking dish, set aside.
Cobbler
In a bowl, whisk together flour, oatmeal, sugar baking powder, spices & salt. With finger tips, blend in butter until crumbly. Add milk, stirring only to combine.
Drop large tablespoons of dough on top of warm fruit. Place into preheated oven & bake for 35-40 minutes, until the edges are bubbling & the top is golden brown.
Serve warm as is or topped with ice cream.
There is nothing more enjoyable than baking with the flavors and scents of fall. Sometimes I feel like apple season takes a back seat to pumpkin but in my opinion its equally important. With their sweet scent and crisp bite, apples are one of those things that define ‘fall’.
The apple pie as we know it, originated in Europe. The most widely known variations are the English, Dutch & Swedish apple pies. While all made their way into North American food culture, the English version is the one familiar to most of us. Worldwide, there are over 7500 types of cultivated apples, reflecting both their versatility and popularity.
Apples, perfectly spiced in a fall dessert, can be amazing. Like most spice blends, the flavor of apple pie spice is variable since the maker can choose the components according to their preference. In all cases, the goal is to provide warmth and sweetness that compliments the tartness of apples.
These little mini tarts started out with an idea I had to incorporate an upside down cake with some shortbread pastry and spiced apples. They actually turned out better than I had expected. After baking, it seemed like they might be quite dry, but instead were real tender and not too sweet. I’ve always enjoyed to use the cardamom spice. It gives such complexity and depth to the flavor of whatever its used in.
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Apple Walnut Mini Tarts
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Instructions
Shortbread Pastry
In a bowl, whisk together flour, sugar & salt. Using a pastry blender or a fork, cut in butter & add vanilla & lemon zest. Mix only until combined, divide in half & wrap each piece in plastic wrap. Place in freezer until slightly frozen & ready to use.
Apple filling
In a bowl, combine sliced apples, lemon juice, sugar, flour & spices. Set aside.
Walnut Topping
In a small bowl, combine chopped nuts, brown sugar & melted butter. Divide mixture between 4 mini tart pans. If your tart pans have removable bottoms, I suggest using a large paper cupcake liner, placing it first in the pan & then putting 'bottom' on top. This will avoid having any of the filling leaking out.
Assembly/Baking
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Remove one half of the pastry from the freezer. On a CHEESE GRATER, grate pastry. Divide between the 4 mini pans, placing the pastry on top of walnut mixture.
Strain apples, reserving liquid. Divide apples between mini tarts. Microwave reserved juice for a few seconds just to thicken it a tiny bit, then pour over apples in each tart.
Remove second half of pastry from freezer & grate. Top each mini tart with grated pastry. Bake tarts for about 45-50 minutes or until apples are soft. If browning too fast, float a piece of foil paper over the tarts.
Remove tarts from oven & allow to cool for about 5 minutes before inverting onto serving plates. Nice to serve warm with a little ice cream or whipped cream.
Recipe Notes
- If you care to make your own, here is a recipe for apple pie spice. It makes about 1/3 cup & of course you can always customize the levels of the spices to suit your own taste. I like to keep some handy in my spice drawer to use for various baked goods.
- 1 tsp nutmeg
- 1/4 tsp ginger
- 4 Tbsp cinnamon
- 2 tsp allspice
- 1 tsp cardamom
- Mix together & store in an airtight container in a cool dark place.
Believe it or not, we are at the eve of Christmas 2019. I’m sure I’m not the only one who is wondering how we got here so fast. This year I thought it would be nice to make some Swedish Tea Rings for gifting.
These sweet bread rings are slashed at the sides to expose the colorful fruit and nut filling. There are different variations of this bread, some do not have any fruit in them at all, just cinnamon sugar.
Swedish tea rings have been around for a very long time and while not much is known about their origin, their roots are definitely Swedish. It is believed that the bread essentially started as Christmas preparation and was a part of the grand Swedish Christmas feast.
It seems, the authentic Swedish tea rings are similar to a cinnamon roll in the shape of a ring or wreath. I have also concluded that cardamom ( one of my favorite spices) is to Scandinavians like vanilla is to us in America …. the backdrop to anything sweet. With that, I decided to go with a fruit bread that brought both cardamom and cinnamon together. Sweet!
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Fruity Swedish Tea Rings w/ Orange Butter
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Instructions
Sweet Roll Dough
In a small dish, heat milk to lukewarm. Add yeast & 1 1/2 tsp sugar; let stand for 5 minutes to allow yeast to activate. In a large bowl, whisk together remaining 6 Tbsp sugar, melted butter, sour cream & eggs. Add yeast mixture & stir to combine.
In another bowl, whisk together flour, cardamom, cinnamon & salt. Add flour mixture to yeast mixture, 1 cup at a time, combining well after each addition. Once all flour has been added, knead on a lightly floured surface for about 2 minutes.
Lightly grease the large bowl, place dough in it & cover with plastic wrap & a tea towel. Allow to rest for at least one hour, in a draft free place until dough has doubled in volume.
Filling
In a small bowl, combine butter, sugar, extract & orange zest; set aside. Toss the fruit & almonds with flour; set aside.
Assembly
Punch dough down. Turn onto a lightly floured surface, divide in half. Roll each into an 18 x 12-inch rectangle. Spread half of the (butter) filling over each rectangle to within 1/2-inch of edges; sprinkle each with half of the fruit mixture. Roll up jelly-roll style, starting with a long side, pinch seams to seal.
Place seam side down on a parchment lined baking sheets. Pinch ends together to form wreaths. With sharp scissors, cut from outside edge to 2/3 of the way toward center of ring at 1-inch intervals.
Separate the cut pieces slightly, twisting each individually to allow filling to show,overlapping with the previous piece. Cover & let rise in a warm place until doubled in size, about an hour.
Preheat oven to 325 F. Bake for 25-30 minutes or until golden brown. Remove from pan to a wire rack to cool. In a small bowl, combine orange butter ingredients. Serve with fruit bread. Refrigerate any leftover orange butter.
