The flavor of Chinese five-spice is cozy, comforting, and tastes just like fall! While it’s commonly associated with savory dishes, it can also add an interesting twist to sweet and fruity flavors. The warm and aromatic notes of cinnamon, cloves, and star anise work well with the delicate flavor of pears complementing their natural sweetness.
Chinese Five Spice Powder has been used in Chinese cooking for centuries. Although its origins are somewhat mysterious, it seems to have roots in traditional Chinese medicine. The belief was that this mixture would foster internal harmony by uniting the five main flavors traditionally employed in Chinese cuisine: sweet, sour, pungent, bitter, and salty. By achieving this balance of flavors, aligned with the five main elements (earth, fire, water, metal, and wood), tradition held that one could achieve balance in mind and body.
This flavorful blend of spices typically includes star anise, Szechuan peppercorns, cloves, cinnamon, and fennel seeds and while five spice powder won’t magically cure ailments, it can certainly elevate lackluster dishes.
Chinese five spice as been a favorite of mine for many years. I like it in both sweet and savory dishes but today I thought it would make these ordinary little fall muffins into something special – and it does!
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Chinese 5 Spice Pear & Applesauce Muffins
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Instructions
Preheat oven to 350 F. Line muffin cups with 8 jumbo papers or 12 regular size papers.
Using an electric mixer, cream together butter & sugar then add applesauce, eggs & vanilla & mix until smooth.
In a bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, salt & 5-spice powder.
Add flour mixture to wet mixture, folding in only until barely combined then add diced pear & gently fold into mixture.
Scoop the batter evenly into prepared muffin tin. Divide topping between muffins & gently spread over top using a fork. Bake 25-30 minutes & a toothpick inserted into center comes out clean.
Cool for 5 minutes before removing from muffin tin.
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.
Italian prune plums or sometimes called Empress plums, are different from the traditional round red and black skinned plums we see in the grocery stores. Sporting a dusky purple skin and a tart, lemony green flesh, these European fruits are ripe for harvest by the end of August to the beginning of September. This particular plum is prized throughout Germany and plays a big role in the German kitchen. Although it has a bit of a sour taste, it is very versatile in making juice, jam, cakes, dumplings as well as Slivovitz — a famous Schnapps.
I remember my mother making these plums as a stewed fruit to be served with yeast dumplings ( see my blog on German Hefekloesse from Nov. 6/2016).
Now that the Italian plums have come into season, I’m taking this opportunity to bake some for our dessert today. Top them with a nice simple crumble mixture, bake and serve hot. Of course, what would they be without ice cream!
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Italian Plum Crisp
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Votes: 4
Rating: 4.5
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Instructions
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Place plum halves, cut-side up, in a baking dish & drizzle with lemon juice. In a small bowl, combine topping ingredients, working with fingers until crumbly. Pile topping mixture into 'pit' holes. Bake about 20-30 minutes until topping is golden brown & bubbling. Serve hot with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.
