Marionberry Pie
One of the things I love about living in the Willamette Valley is our access to the berries that thrive here. Every summer, we make a special trip to the local u-pick for marionberries because we love them so much, and freeze as many as we can for jam and pie and smoothies throughout the year. There’s just something about the way they hit the taste buds that I can’t describe, but we all crave them and consider them to be one of our favorite flavors of the summer.
This year, we harvested our berries on the early side, so they’re a little more tart than usual. To be honest, we’ll probably head back in another week or two to harvest more at a riper stage, but it’s no loss to us. The tart ones are perfect for pie and jam. In fact, I made my first pie of the summer yesterday with these, and it was so delicious that I’ve come here to jot down the recipe before the details leave my mind.
It’s a little difficult to find recipes for marionberry pie online since they’re so specific to us locally, so I based mine off a recipe I like for blackberry pie and tweaked it from there. If you can get your hands on marionberries, even frozen, I highly recommend it. The riper your berries are, the less sugar you’ll need, and you may want to add a little citrus peel or juice to adjust the acidity as well. In any case, keep in mind that the berries I used in this recipe were quite tart, and it was perfection.
Marionberry Pie
Ingredients
- 1 cup (2 sticks) of salted butter, sliced
- 2 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 teaspoon sugar
- 2-3 tablespoons cold water
- 5 cups marionberries, fresh or frozen
- 1 cup sugar
- 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
- Pinch of salt
- 2 tablespoons milk
Instructions
Lazy Pie
We harvest tons of berries in the summer and store them in the freezer, and one of my favorite ways to prepare them is in pie, yet I rarely feel like taking the time out of my day to make a pie crust. There’s just something about refrigerating the dough and fighting with the rolling pin that holds me back, which is how I stumbled upon this method for lazy pie, which is essentially a cobbler recipe pared down to the very basics.
My method is very simple. I pour out my frozen berries to fit whichever dish I’m using, whether it’s a pie pan or a 9x13 or anything else, coat the berries in a few spoonfuls of sugar and flour, and then spread the “crust” evenly over the top. This topping is essentially made from the ratios of my favorite pie dough recipe sans the water that turns it into a dough, so it’s flaky and powdery with the butter evenly cut throughout.
And even though this recipe is basic, I often find myself adding a dash of cinnamon or cardamom or something to give it an extra kick, depending on which berries I use. It also works using frozen apple or peach slices too. Enjoy!
Lazy Pie
Ingredients
- Frozen Berries (enough to fill your pan 3/4 full)
- 3-4 tablespoons sugar
- 1 tablespoon flour
- 1 1/2 cup flour
- 1 cup salted butter
- 1/2 teaspoon salt, or to taste
- 1 tablespoon sugar, or to taste
Instructions
Notes
- I often make this in a 9x13 and will make 1.5 or 2x's the topping
- How much sugar I use depends on the sweetness of the berries, so always sweeten to taste
- Feel free to add spices and flavorings. I often add a dash of cinnamon or some lemon peel to kick it up a notch.
PIN IT FOR LATER
Honey Caramel Corn
I decided to try making honey caramel corn on a whim a couple weeks ago, and everyone in my family liked it so much it’s now one of our favorite fall snacks. At first, I was worried the flavor of the honey would be too sweet. I will often avoid using it when making baked goods because the flavor tends to be overpowering, but in this case the flavor of the caramelized honey mixed with the butter, salt and popcorn creates a nicely balanced and delicious combination, and it’s really hard to describe. It’s just one of those recipes you have to try for yourself. These days, I prefer using honey to sugar or corn syrup whenever I make my caramel corn.
In our house, we’ve been working through a gallon of local raw raspberry honey, which definitely has a stronger flavor than a mild clover honey, but still works perfectly in this recipe. I’ve also used barley honey and wildflower honey, and I love how each variation comes through slightly differently. It can be a real celebration of local flavor if you source your honey nearby. We also like to play with different varieties of popcorn. A dessert as simple as this gives the ingredients a chance to shine, so we like to get the best quality we can get.
If you’re feeling adventurous, you may want to try mixing in a tablespoon or two of peanut butter or some vanilla extract (or both). If you use the nut butter, it’ll thicken the sauce a bit more, so you’ll need to move quickly before it hardens too much to stir, but it’s worth the extra trouble if you love the creamy addition of peanut butter like we do.
Regarding our popcorn, we source our kernels either locally through farmer’s markets, or from organic bulk stores like Essential Organics, and we pop it using an air popper, but you could use any method you like to pop the kernels. Just make sure they’re all popped and waiting in a large enough bowl to stir without making a mess before you get going on the sauce. It’ll save you a lot of trouble in advance.
Honey Caramel Corn
Ingredients
- 1/2 cup popcorn kernels, popped
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1/4 cup honey
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp baking soda
Instructions
Notes
Try this delicious variation: melt 2 tablespoons peanut butter with stovetop mixture. This will create a thicker sauce, so you’ll need to work quickly before it starts to harden too much.
Pin It For Later
Einkorn Chocolate Chip Cookies with Peanut Butter
The origin of this recipe comes from an inspired afternoon in the kitchen this last spring while Matt was outside building a fence in the rain. I wanted to make chocolate chip cookies, but instead of using white and brown sugar to sweeten them, I wanted to try it with maple syrup. I also wanted to use einkorn all-purpose flour instead of the regular stuff, but einkorn absorbs liquid differently, so I knew both these changes would mean the wet and dry ratios would be off.
But I was in the mood to experiment.
The first batch was actually kinda perfect. Looking back, I’m not sure how I managed it. Beginner’s luck, perhaps. It took several tries after that first batch to nail down the texture and level of sweetness, and then at some point later on I decided to add peanut butter to the recipe, which definitely made my husband fall more in love with me, but also meant more fiddling with the recipe to get it right. Luckily, my family is not at all picky when it comes to cookies, so they were happy to test out my various experiments.
So this week, I decided to nail it down so I could share it with you here and remember it for later. This is my favorite chocolate chip cookie recipe, hands down. It’s rich but not too sweet, indulgent but easily digestible. We love it. I hope you will too.
Einkorn Chocolate Chip Cookies with Peanut Butter
Ingredients
- 1 cup room temperature butter, cut into cubes
- 1/4 cup natural peanut butter, smooth or chunky
- 1/4 cup honey
- 3/4 cup real maple syrup
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 eggs
- 4 cups all-purpose einkorn flour
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 1/2 teaspoon salt
- 2 cups chocolate chips (we use miniature)
Instructions
PIN IT FOR LATER
Honey-Sweetened Sourdough Muffins
Over the past few months, I’ve been getting to know my sourdough starter bit by bit, and I’m doing it in a really “intuitive” way, meaning I mostly eyeball it with my timing and ingredient amounts rather than weighing things out on a scale and being precise with hydration or flour ratios. I’ve kept my starter on the counter, fed it twice per day, and when it’s not used for bread, I try to find something enjoyable to do with the discard. I’m baking bread nearly every day because, as someone who learns by doing, I know it’s the only way I’ll ever improve my skills. As a result, I’ve got bread coming out of my ears. I’m baking more than we can eat and giving most of it away to any family member or friend I can.
With two feeds per day, I’m learning a whole lot about sourdough and the way we enjoy it. Mostly my loaves turn out edible and beautiful in a rustic sort of way, but there are occasional duds. Even with this many feedings, it’s rare that I’ll throw that precious discard down the sink. Mostly it goes into sourdough dutch babies, pancakes or muffins, and I’m always looking for other easy ways to use it because that’s a whole lot of good quality flour down the drain if you can’t find a way to bake and eat it.
I eventually plan to learn how to make all-things sourdough: pie crust, bagels, pastries, crackers, quickbreads… but for now, while I’m still focused on learning how to make basic bread and feeding my starter this often, I’m just looking for solutions that can be accomplished quickly and easily with a napping baby and a 4-year-old underfoot.
That said, I’d like to share a recipe for sourdough muffins that I’ve been using nonstop this summer for my discard. It uses all-purpose flour and cornmeal for a light, yet robust muffin that won’t get soggy with berry add-ins. Plus, they’re lightly sweetened with a bit of honey. Delicious.
Honey Sweetened Berry Sourdough Muffins
Ingredients
- 1 cup unbleached all-purpose flour1 cup cornmeal1 teaspoon salt1 teaspoon baking soda1 teaspoon cinnamon1 cup sourdough discard¼ cup milk1 egg¼ cup melted butter or oil½ cup honey2 cups berries, fresh or frozen
Instructions
Chewy Ginger Molasses Cookies
When I first stumbled across the recipe for these delicious chewy ginger cookies, I had no idea they would become my favorite Christmas cookie of all time. At the time, I was working as the blog editor for a stationery and paper goods company in Portland, and I was looking for a recipe idea that would pair well with the holly tags that were eventually featured in this post. I loved the idea of creating white space on a ginger cookie for decorating, but it never occurred to me how well the flavors of rich, earthy ginger and molasses would pair with the creaminess of the white chocolate.
Don’t get me wrong: you can eat these cookies in their plain form. They make for a delicious ginger-molasses cookie experience, but please do try them with the white chocolate if you feel so inclined. I promise, it’s worth the extra effort.
A word about white chocolate chips: I’ve tried several brands, but certainly not all. The brand I keep coming back to in terms of flavor is Ghirardelli. They’re not sponsoring this post or anything - don’t worry. They just have a good, true flavor without any weird aftertastes, and they melt perfectly.
Chewy Ginger Cookies Dipped in White Chocolate
Ingredients
- 2¼ cups all-purpose flour1 tsp baking soda½ tsp salt2 tsp ground ginger1 tsp ground cinnamon¼ tsp ground cloves¼ tsp ground nutmeg¾ cup (1½ sticks) butter, softened½ cup sugar½ cup packed light-brown sugar1 large egg¼ cup molasses2 tsp vanilla extract½ cup sugar in the raw (or regular sugar)3 cups white chocolate chipsWax paper or parchment
Instructions
Notes
Optional: after the white chocolate has hardened, decorate your cookies using royal icing/frosting
P.S. I always double this recipe. And although I usually always dip them in white chocolate, I only bother to frost them with royal icing if I’m feeling fancy.
Recipe adapted from Cooking Classy.
Zucchini Bread
Our zucchini harvest season is winding down, but we still have a few large specimens awaiting their fate on the kitchen counter. If the zucchini is small and tender, I’ll usually eat it without much ado: lightly sautéed and seasoned with salt and pepper. The larger ones, however, have a tougher skin, larger seeds and not as delicate of flavor, so those are usually reserved for batch after batch of zucchini bread which I’ll freeze and eat, or give away to friends and family throughout the year.
My zucchini bread recipe stems from a recipe given to my husband by his family. I’ve experimented and tweaked some things here and there, and have come up with my own well-worn and loved variation. Every kitchen witch has their own method, after all.
For me, the chopped dates are essential. The original recipe calls for chopped nuts, which are also delicious, but I reduce the sugar from its original 2 ¼ cup down to 1 ½ (or less), so the dates give it a little added sweetness. The real magic in the dates, however, is in their texture. They almost melt into the bread while it’s baking.
Zucchini Bread
Ingredients
- 1 cup butter, softened
- 1 1/2 cup sugar (I usually only use 1 cup) OR 1 cup maple syrup and 1/2 cup honey
- 3 eggs
- 2 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 2 cups grated zucchini
- 3 cups all-purpose flour
- 3 teaspoon ground cinnamon
- 1/8 teaspoon freshly ground nutmeg
- 1 teaspoon baking powder
- 1 teaspoon baking soda
- 1 teaspoon salt
- 1 cup chopped dates
Instructions
Notes
My personal preference with regard to sweetener is 1 cup maple syrup and 1/2 cup honey. Sugar works too, but maple and honey will give you a really lovely flavor that's more complex and interesting.
Naturally Sweetened Granola
This recipe for granola has evolved so much over time. A little less honey, a little more maple syrup. A little more cinnamon and salt. More nut varieties, but less dried fruit. Better yet, no dried fruit at all. A tweak here and there documented over time in the Notes app on my phone. It’s a simple enough recipe that I could make it without referencing my notes, except I’ve changed it so much from where it originally was that I want to make sure I follow my own instructions exactly to make the perfect batch. We take our granola very seriously around here.
Matt eats this stuff every morning with a little yogurt. I tend to eat it two or three times per week. He’s a creature of habit, but I like variety. As a result, I don’t often notice right away when the granola is gone, and he’s too polite to say anything until we’ve gone a week or two with an empty jar.
I’m posting this up, my love, so you can make your own batch next time I fail to notice. I’m also posting this because who knows when my phone will fail and I’ll lose the recipe forever. The more copies that are out there, the better.
And speaking of copying recipes, I’ve decided to go ahead and transfer (and update) all of the well-worn and well-loved recipes from my blogspot address to this space. I reference my old blog for those recipes constantly, so I want to make sure I have them here too. I imagine many of them have changed in various ways throughout the years, just as this one has.
Naturally Sweetened Granola Recipe
Ingredients
- 1 cup chopped nuts (raw)1 cup chopped seeds3 cups rolled oats1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon1/4 teaspoon salt, or to taste1/3 cup maple syrup1/4 cup honey3 tablespoons coconut oil, melted
Instructions
Notes
Optional add-ins: roasted flax seeds or other roasted seeds, dried coconut, dried fruit, chocolate.