Because in my childhood world of down parkas to your knees, months of slate-grey skies and salt-trucks de-icing the roads every morning, citrus mostly came in juice form. From exotic places like Florida.

After nearly a decade of citrus plenty (four trees grow on my property, showering us literally with lemons and oranges), my eyes have started wandering toward more exotic cousins: Buddha’s Hand and Rangpur limes.

Combining the two: A white cake studded with dried Buddha’s Hand, then slathered with a tart Rangpur lime buttercream frosting. Yes, it’s that good.

Buddha's Hand Cake with Rangpur Lime buttercream Recipe

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Perfect Peach Cobbler

Cobblers are such a homey little hug of a dessert.

I remember never being all that impressed with them as a kid. They seemed like such a Betsy home-ec thing to make. Something eternally stuck in a bygone era — like lime Jell-O with Cool Whip. Not to mention being scarred by versions using canned peaches and Bisquick, resulting in a gooey mess that smelled like an elementary school cafeteria.

This is an entirely different beast.

Peaches are at their juiciest right now, soft and drippy and sweet as a summer evening. A hint of lemon with a crisp, airy biscuit atop makes for a perfect cobbler for a warm September evening. Inspired by a collection of old and new recipes, caterer and bake Meloni Courtway knows a thing or two about cobblers, recently having made 40 for a summer event.  Here’s her can’t-miss recipe…

(PS: Meloni will be taking her baking skills to Olympia’s Orchard on Sept. 12 and Two Rock Ranch on Sept. 19 for Apple Pie workshops teaching the secrets to a perfect crust and all picking. Visiting TwoRockRanch.com for details.)

Perfect Peach Cobbler
recipe by Meloni Courtway
Serves 15

3 pounds peaches, peeled and pitted
1 1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tablespoon cornstarch
Juice of 1 lemon + two teaspoons lemon juice
Zest of half lemon
2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 cup sugar
1 tablespoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
1 cup plain yogurt (not non-fat or low-fat)
2 teaspoons lemon juice
1 stick unsalted butter melted and cooled

Heat oven to 350 degrees.Generously butter a large casserole dish. Peel and pit peaches. Slice into fairly large chunks. Place peaches, 1 1/4 cups sugar, cornstarch juice of 1 lemon and zest into large bowl.  Toss gently to coat, using a wooden spoon. You will be tempted to pull out several slippery peaches and pop them into your mouth at this point. Go for it.

Place sliced peaches in buttered casserole dish and into oven to heat until the juices begin to run – roughly 20 minutes.

Meanwhile, in a small bowl combine yogurt, 2 teaspoons lemon juice, and melted butter. Stir to combine. Set aside.

In the bowl of an electric mixer combine flour, baking powder, and salt. Pulse briefly with paddle attachment. Add butter mixture to flour and pulse slowly to just combine. Do not over mix. This can  all be done by hand as well.

Pull hot peaches from oven.  Dollop tablespoons of the sticky dough over the hot peaches, distributing equally.  It will look like drop biscuits. There will be gaps where fruit shows through – this is good, as the dough will rise!

Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes or until the tops are golden brown.  Serve warm or re-warmed later the same day with vanilla ice cream!

No seriously. It’s an internet sensation. And your friends will think you’re terribly clever. Plus, I was bored last night.

So here’s BiteClub’s take…

- Level one: Spiced cake with an apple pie baked inside
- Level two: Yellow cake with a cherry pie baked inside
- Level three: White cake with glazed donuts baked inside, mostly because the structural integrity of the dang thing was getting pretty precarious and it seemed like it needed a lighter layer.

Total weight: Approx six pounds. Regret after eating: Endless.

Here’s the inspiration video:

Humble Pie’s First Annual Strange Pie Challenge
Humble Pie’s First Annual Strange Pie Challenge took place on July 4, 2010. And you missed some crazy pies…

Entries included:
BEST SAVORY: Club Sandwich with Fries Please! (included everything, yes Everything in a club sandwich…even the mayo! Topped with french fries)
BEST SWEET: Lunch Box Pie (kid sweet and potato chip friendly)
BEST FREAK: Cream of Freak Pie (hotsauce cream with cheetos, nescafe, and mango) A truly awful pie that i cannot  believe people voted for *lol* which just goes to show you how much people are willing to be generous to freaks)

Honorable Mention: Candied Pepper Chocolate Pie.  So good you can look for it at The Humble Pie dessert menu soon!  This pie received the most votes, but the votes were split amongst the three catagories that it didnt win any of them! The winner did receive beer as a consolation prize.
- Cricket Pie (now, with actual crickets!)
- Kasey Pie: Rhubarb, M+M’s, Zucchini, peanut butter, macaroni, tater tots, sardines and Life Savors
- Jelly Bean Pie
- Strawberry Rhubarb Lifesaver Pie
- Blueberry, jalapeno, sausage, goat cheese pie
- Salmon salad pie
- Sweet and savory “man” pie
- Pickle, peanut butter and yogurt pie
- Chocolate Rose Pie
- Rhubarb Red Pear Pie
- Caramel apple, bacon and egg pie
And several others that I’d like to forget…

Congrats to all the entrants. And thanks for voting Lucy’s Lunchbox Pie the Sweet Winner!! I promise I didn’t twist any arms for this prize, but judges may have been swayed by my sous chef, Lucy. That, or that fact that I was threatening a recount if things didn’t go our way. Whatev.

Lucy’s Lunchbox Pie
by BiteClub

This is a riff on a kids’ lunch — peanut butter, jelly, a Reese’s peanut butter cup and of course, potato chips. Mix ‘em all together and you’ve got a killer pie inspired by a 7-year-old. It’s rich beyond belief, but the crunchy, salty crust is a great foil to the sweet peanut butter and chocolate. Yummmmm….

Crust
8 oz Lay’s Potato Chips (about 2/3 of an 11oz bag)
1 cup honey roast peanuts
4 Tablespoons butter
1/4 cup sugar

Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Mix ingredients in a food processor and pulse about 15 seconds or until mixture comes together loosely. You can also just put the mixture in a plastic bag and roll with rolling pin. Should be small crumbs. Pour into a pie pan and press very firmly to about 1/4 inch thickness along bottom. Don’t worry about the sides. You may have enough for two pies or just some delicious snacking (the uncooked crust is yummy on ice cream). Cook in oven for about 11 minutes or until lightly browned. Let cool completely.

Fudge Layer
1 bottle fudge ice cream topping
5 Tbs raspberry preserves

Mix about 2/3 of the fudge and raspberry preserves (you can use any flavor, really). Spread on top of crust. Place in freezer.

Peanut Butter Silk
1 1/2 cups heavy whipping cream
2 Tbs sugar
8 oz cream cheese, softened
1 cup smooth peanut butter
1 cup powdered sugar

Whip cream with sugar. In another bowl, mix softened cream cheese, peanut butter and powdered sugar. Gently fold in whipped cream. Pour peanut butter layer into pie. Chill for several hours before serving.

Garnish with whipped cream rosettes, crushed potato chips and a Reese’s Peanut butter cup.

Mama Frischkorn’s Double Gold Caramel Corn
Serve with Kendall-Jackson Late Harvest Chardonnay
Recipe by Chef Eric Frischkorn
Servings: 3 Quarts

This is an easy weeknight dessert or afternoon snack.  This sweet and salty treat compliments the aromas of vanilla and caramel found in the Kendall-Jackson Late Harvest Chardonnay.

Ingredients:

• ½ cup Butter
• ¼ cup Corn Syrup (light)
• 1 cup Brown Sugar
• ½ tsp. Vanilla
• ¼ tsp. Baking Soda
• 3 quarts Popcorn (air popped)*
• 2 tsp. Kosher salt

Preparation:

Preheat oven to 300º.

Grease a foil lined cookie sheet with non-stick spray.

In a 1-gallon, heavy-bottomed sauce pot, melt the
butter over medium heat.  Add both the corn syrup and brown sugar,
stirring to combine.  Simmer until large bubbles begin to form without
agitating the pan, approximately 4 minutes.  Once the mixture comes up
to temperature, continue cooking on medium heat and stir every thirty
seconds for the next 4 to 6 minutes**.  Turn off the heat and carefully
whisk in the salt, vanilla and baking soda.  Fold in the popped corn
and gently coat without crushing.

Transfer the popcorn to the greased cookie sheet
and bake at 300º F.  Gently stir every 5 minutes for 15 minutes, making
sure all the popcorn is evenly coated.  Remove and cool the finished
caramel corn on wax paper.  Once cool enough to handle, but not
completely cold, break apart the popcorn bunches.

*Air popped popcorn is preferred, but stove top method will also work.

** To check the color of the caramel at this point; carefully dip one
piece of the popped corn into the pot. The caramel should be amber in
color.

He, of course, hated it. Let’s be honest, we both knew he would have been much happier digging into a store-bought cake with fluorescent green frosting an a plastic Mutant Turtle on top.

Such is the fate of parenthood. Homemade cakes give way to semi-homemade cakes, which give way to store-bought monstrosities so laden with shortening and sugar that the actual cake seems an afterthought. Maybe it’s just hiding in shame.

But there is salvation to be found, and it’s name is tres leches. Well-known to the fiesta-set, this creamy, dreamy, milk-laden cake is a homemade(ish) antidote to industrialized desserts.

The recipe goes like this–a pan of sponge cake gets jabbed and poked within an inch of its life, then doused with a mixture of evaporated and condensed milk, along with heavy cream (three milks=tres leches). Let soak, then cloak the whole thing in a n inch of whipped cream. Purists prefer their cake unadorned, though I think adding a layer of fruit makes for a better party.

The cakes ends up a bit like a thoroughly soused rum cake, minus the rum: Sweet, spongy and insanely moist–sometimes almost wet. The whipped cream frosting is rich, but goes down a lot better than heavy buttercream or (shudder) shortening-based frosting. !Ole!

No one’s quite sure where this confectionery marvel got its start, although popular belief places its origins in Central America. More specifically, it’s thought to have come from a recipe on the side of a sweetened or condensed milk can somewhere in Nicaragua–not such a wild theory due in part to the prevalence of canned milk in hot climates (where the fresh stuff doesn’t last long).

The recipe remains popular in Latin American countries and, like flan and dulce de leche, has kindly infiltrated US food culture. You’ll find it everywhere from local Mexican bakeries to the dessert menus of upscale restaurants (Cindy’s Backstreet Kitchen in St. Helena frequently has it on the menu.)

Don’t expect to walk up and get a slice, however. Cakes usually need to be ordered in advance from local Mexican bakeries (as BiteClub found out the hard way), but high-traffic spots like Lola’s Market and (BiteClub’s fave) Pasteles Fiesta usually have a selection on hand for walk-ins. Pasteles also has slices available with or without fruit for dabblers and lunch-breakers.

And yes, you can even get them decorated with green frosting, pink flowers and nifty toys. Making everyone happy.

Where is your favorite tres leches?