dried fruit – Simply Delicious: The Cookbook Project

19-4: Exotic Fruits II

Jamie Martin Group 19: Basic Ingredients, Section 4: Cooking School April 22, 2024April 21, 2024cape gooseberries, cooking school, dried fruit, figs, fruit, fruit juice, fruit salad, fruit sauce, guava, ingredients, mixed fruit, papaya, passion fruit, tamarillo, vegan, vegetarian

A month ago or so, I promised you the sequel to 19-3: Exotic Fruits I, and now I present to you that sequel, 19-4: Exotic Fruits II.

Here’s my standard blurb about Cooking School, and how the back of the book features spotlights on basic recipes, ingredients, and techniques as part of a “cooking school”.

Due to the way Simply Delicious writes these, I’ll cover these ingredients the same way I did in Part I after the jump, along with the ingredients on the back of this card. I’ll warn you now–I don’t have a lot of recipes for these so far, so instead, I’ll suggest some recipes where you could maybe use these ingredients as replacements or additions.

19-3: Exotic Fruits I

Jamie Martin Group 19: Basic Ingredients, Section 4: Cooking School March 4, 2024March 4, 2024carambola, cooking school, dried fruit, fruit, fruit juice, fruit salad, fruit sauce, garnish, ingredients, kiwis, mango juice, mangoes, mixed fruit, star fruit, vegan, vegetarian

In today’s edition of “The Way Things Used To Be”, we’re going to see yet another example of how globalization over the last 30ish years has changed everything, including the availability of produce. 19-3: Exotic Fruits I (and its soon-to-be-sequel, 19-4: Exotic Fruits II) highlights three fruits that seemed “exotic” back in the late 1980s-early 1990s: kiwi, carambola (“star fruit”), and mango.

Out of the three, I’d maybe consider carambola as the most “exotic”–kiwi and mango were already pretty popular by the 1990s (the heyday of brands like Nantucket Nectars and Snapple). Plus, which of the three do you think you’d have the hardest time locating in a grocery store these days? I mean, you’d find all of them, but you might have to go to like, two stores? When this was written, it’d have been much harder (especially based on where you lived).

17-14: Nutty Muffins

Jamie Martin Group 17: Baked Goods, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods September 15, 2017August 31, 2020all-purpose flour, almonds, at work, baked goods, baking cups, baking powder, breakfast, butter, candied, chopped, cinnamon, citrus, creamed, dessert, dried fruit, easy, eggs, fairly inexpensive, gift ideas, granulated sugar, hazelnuts, melted, milk, muffins, nuts, oranges, pecans, peeled, reduced, simple syrup, snacks, tangerines, toppings, untested, vegetarian, walnuts, zested

Here’s one of the last few recipes left from the chapter on baked goods, Group 17: Baked Goods. I made 17-14: Nutty Muffins for work–I thought they’d make a nice accompaniment to everyone’s morning coffee. ☕️

See? Even Simply Delicious shows them being served with coffee. Wikipedia offers a deeper dive on the history of muffins if you’re interested/bored. There’s a difference between these types of muffins (referred to as “quickbread” muffins or “American” muffins due to the fact that they’re very similar to a cupcake or other types of sweet, dense, cake-like bread) and the traditional “English” muffins that you get with Eggs Benedict or an Egg McMuffin.

17-47: Italian Fruit Bread

Jamie Martin Group 17: Baked Goods, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods December 21, 2016September 21, 2020all-purpose flour, apricots, baguette, baked goods, breads, breakfast, cake yeast, chopped, Christmas, dairy-free, dried fruit, dried herbs, egg-free, fairly easy, fairly inexpensive, fruit, fruitcake, gift ideas, herbs and spices, holiday baking, Italian, kneaded, olive oil, party food, pine nuts, proofed, raisins, rosemary, salt, snacks, untested, vegan, vegetarian, walnuts, XMAS 16, yeast

Get ready for another big batch of baked goods–it’s time for this year’s adventure (XMAS 16) into holiday baking (aka everyone’s presents for Christmas this year). Last year I made 6 Simply Delicious recipes as gifts, and this year came out to a total of 7. ? I’m going to attempt to cover them in the order they were made, and the first recipe of the batch was 17-47: Italian Fruit Bread. ??

This recipe seems similar to a panettone, although not as sweet or flaky and shaped differently. Despite the variations, I still thought it made a nice Christmas gift, especially only just including a few slices in each gift bag. ?

16-52: Apple Nut Saucepan Torte

Jamie Martin Group 16: Pies & Cakes, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods November 28, 2016November 5, 2020à la mode, all-purpose flour, apples, apricots, autumn, baked goods, baking powder, baking soda, boiled, breakfast, brown sugar, butter, cake pan, cakes, caramelized, cast-iron, cherries, chopped, cinnamon, cored, currants, dessert, diced, dried fruit, eggs, fairly easy, fairly inexpensive, fall, fruit, fruitcake, gift ideas, golden raisins, granulated sugar, grated, herbs and spices, hot desserts, melted, nuts, oranges, papaya, party food, pecans, peeled, pineapple, raisins, snacks, springform pan, TGV 2016, Thanksgiving, torte, untested, vanilla extract, vegetarian, zested

One of the two desserts I made for this year’s Thanksgiving (TGV 2016) was 16-52: Apple Nut Saucepan Torte (the other was 15-49: Chocolate Pudding Deluxe). I wanted something “of the season”, and this seemed like a cross between apple pie and fruitcake.

This was the second dish I made, starting off the Wednesday 11/23 portion of my holiday cooking marathon. Since this cake holds well at room temperature, I planned to just slightly underbake it, and then finish it off for 5-10 minutes in a preheated oven to warm it up for dessert on the day of the holiday.

If I hadn’t made this for Thanksgiving, I think it’d make a great gift (mailed or delivered in person) or potluck dish, especially for an office or somewhere where it would sit for a while. Even though Thanksgiving is over for the year, it’s totally still the season for a cake like this one.

Other dishes I made on this night (Wed. 11/23): the dressing for 1-10: Seafood Louisiana Cocktail, cranberry sauce, 15-49: Chocolate Pudding Deluxe, and a roasted garlic & herb butter to serve with 17-5: Hot Seedy Rolls.

17-53: Spiced Whole Wheat Muffins

Jamie Martin Group 17: Baked Goods, Section 3: Desserts & Baked Goods November 19, 2015November 8, 2020all-purpose flour, allspice, autumn, baked goods, baking powder, breakfast, canola oil, cinnamon, cocoa powder, dates, dessert, dried fruit, easy, eggs, fairly inexpensive, fall, gift ideas, ginger, granulated sugar, mace, milk, muffins, nutmeg, nuts, pumpkin spice, raisins, salt, snacks, spice blends, unsweetened, untested, vegetable oil, vegetarian, whole wheat flour

Another recipe that I intended to cover earlier (when it was more relevant). Whatever, you can totally still eat 17-53: Spiced Whole Wheat Muffins in mid-to-late November.

The recipe card says “not-too-sweet”…they’re not kidding. These are good, but only if you have some preserves or butter to go along with it. On their own, they’re a bit…dry.