Strawberry Sumac Fregolotta

This simple and summery strawberry sumac fregolotta is an easy Italian shortbread tart, filled with sticky, homemade strawberry jam.

I’ve been taking the last few days off of Instagram and it has been luxurious. It took me a while to realize, but I’ve been stuck in a creative rut. The realities of the pandemic have finally reached my kitchen. A lot of the inspiration that I draw from food friends and restaurants has run out and I’ve been feeling like I’m grasping for recipe ideas from nowhere. On top of that, spending hours a day on Instagram with a screen that constantly refreshes new recipes and photos wasn't helping. My brain felt like it was both too loud and too quiet at the same time. The last few days have been peaceful. I’ve been working on some backend blog stuff, trying out spontaneous recipes, and playing with my camera so that I’m prepared to get you all sorts of new recipes this summer.

One of the places that where I’ve found inspiration during this restaurant-less spell has been my cookbook shelf. I’ve been going back to old favorites, like my used, beat-up copy of Chez Panisse Desserts, published in 1985. There are no pictures, only pencil illustrations of fruit, and it’s a treasure trove of produce-inspired pastries. (It’s also apparently selling for $240 on Amazon so I will be taking my copy to the grave with me.) The other book I’ve been enjoying lately is Thalia Ho’s Wild Sweetness. I’ve been baking my way through it’s pages over the last month or so and it’s where the inspiration for this tart came from.

What is a fregolotta?

A fregolotta is an Italian tart, made from a coarse, shortbread-like crust. The name comes from “fregole”, the Venetian word for crumbs and the same shortbread dough that gets pressed into the bottom of the pan, also gets scattered across the top haphazardly. Often, the crust incorporates some sort of nut or grain, like semolina or polenta or almonds. In this rendition, the crust is made from ground sunflower seeds, cornmeal, flour, sugar, egg yolks, and butter. This Italian jam tart can be filled with any jam you like, but since we are smack in the middle of strawberry season (and they are my very favorite fruit), I couldn’t resist cooking fresh strawberries down with a little sugar and bright, tart sumac to create a sticky, sweet jam filling. In practical notes, if your jam seems a little too liquid-y, just scoop out the berries and reserve some of the strawberry sauce for drizzling on ice cream later.

strawberry sumac fregolotta

strawberry sumac fregolotta

Yield

makes one 9" tart pan

Author

Anna Ramiz

Prep time

20 Min

Cook time

45 Min

Total time

1 H & 4 M

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Strawberry Sumac Fregolotta

This Italian pastry is made of a shortbread-style crumble crust filled with sticky strawberry sumac jam.

Ingredients

for the strawberry sumac filling

• 1 lb strawberries, trimmed and quartered
• 1/2 lb granulated sugar
• Juice of 1/2 of a large lemon
• 1 tbsp ground sumac

for the crust

• 1 1/4 cup + 1 tsp (160 g) all purpose flour
• 120 g ground sunflower seeds
• 1/4 cup (40 g) cornmeal
• 1/2 cup + 1 tbsp (115 g) granulated sugar
• Pinch of salt
• 2 egg yolks
• 3/4 cup + 2 tbsp (200 g) unsalted butter, cold and cubed

Instructions

1. Stir together all filling ingredients in a medium pot and bring to a boil over medium heat. Simmer for 15-20 minutes, until strawberries have broken down and the mixture has thickened. Transfer to a bowl and chill until room temperature.
2. While the filling is cooling, place sunflower seeds in the bowl of a food processor and pulse until finely ground. Add the flour, cornmeal, sugar, and salt and pulse once or twice just to combine.
3. Add the butter to the food processor and pulse until butter has broken up and is pea-sized. Add the yolks and pulse until mixed in and dough just begins to come together.
4. Press 2/3 of the dough in an even layer on the bottom and up the sides of a tart pan. Spoon the strawberry filling* (see notes) into the tart pan and crumble the remaining 1/3 of the dough over the top of the tart.
5. Place the tart pan on a parchment-lined baking sheet at bake at 350° for 35-40 minutes, until filling is bubbly and crust is golden brown. Let cool completely before slicing.

Notes:

If the strawberry filling seems like it has a lot of liquid, fish the strawberry pieces out of the jam and don’t add all of the leftover juice to the fregolotta. Keep the juice for topping on ice cream!

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Honey Lavender Orange Loaf Cake

This simple honey and orange loaf cake recipe is drizzled with a lavender simple syrup. Plus, recipe includes tips for making a great loaf cake and advice on how to adapt your cakes based on the fruit and florals you have on hand.

The large majority of my recipe ideas come from me trying to figure out what to do with random ingredients that are left hanging out in my fridge or pantry. Being a recipe developer, I’m often left with deli containers filled with small scoops of custards, syrups, or ganaches that I’m continually working to repurpose. I am also passionate about cooking and baking with as much in-season produce as possible, a habit that regularly leaves me buying more fruit than I need just because they are in season and oh so pretty. This is how this honey lavender and orange loaf cake came to be. A scrap bake at its finest.

You guys know how much I love teaching fundamental baking. For so many, baking can be scary and rigid and needs specific ratios and times in order for things to turn out correctly. While this is somewhat true, once you understand the roles that ingredients play in a product, baking can be creative and inspired and uniquely your own. I’m so passionate about this idea, that I wrote an e-book on it and I teach virtual baking classes to help you gain confidence and learn how to adapt baked goods to suit your refrigerator.

a very simple loaf cake

Loaf cakes are a great back-pocket bake. Because of their shape and density, they hold moisture well and last a bit longer than individual bakes, like cookies and brownies. They are also a great travel bake—it’s easy to wrap a slice up and take it on the road with you. They are also fairly straightforward, utilizing ingredients you probably already have in your pantry, like flour, butter, sugar, and eggs. This makes them the perfect vessel for flavor adaptation.

how to adapt your loaf cakes

You can definitely use this recipe as is and it will turn out beautifully. The honey lavender syrup complements the floral orange flavor in a way that shouts “spring is here”! But because I’m invested you experimenting and playing with flavors in your kitchen, here are a few ways you can adapt this recipe.

The fruit

Citrus is a great baking fruit because you’re able to use all of the components: fruit, zest, and juice. You can easily substitute another citrus fruit, like lemon or lime, in place of the orange in this recipe. You can also fold in whole fruits, like raspberries, strawberries, or blueberries. Simply omit the orange zest, replace the orange juice with milk or buttermilk, and fold your berries in just before pouring the batter into the pan.

The syrup

You can swap the lavender for pretty much any herb or flower that you like. If you want to omit the honey flavor, make a sugar syrup by replacing the honey with sugar and simmering until all of the granules have dissolved. Soaking a cake in a flavored syrup contributes both moisture and flavor to your final baked good.

a few other scrap-baking projects to explore:

Fig Butter and Bleu Cheese Rugelach

Bananas Foster Eton Mess

Caramel Brownie Ice Cream

Floral Strawberry Poptarts

Yield: makes one 9x5" loaf cake

Author: Anna Ramiz

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Honey Lavender and Orange Loaf Cake

Prep time: 25 MinCook time: 1 HourTotal time: 1 H & 25 M

Inspired by Violet Bakery's Lemon Drizzle Loaf, this citrus pound cake is soaked with honey lavender syrup.

Ingredients

for the honey lavender syrup

• 1 cup of honey
• 1 cup water
• 2 tbsp lavender buds

for the cake

• 1 cup (226 g) unsalted butter, softened
• 1 cup (200 g) granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup (85 g) honey
• 1 large orange, zested
• 3 eggs
• 1 3/4 cup (220 g) all purpose flour
• 1 1/2 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp kosher salt
• 1 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
• 3 tbsp whole-milk, plain yogurt
• 1/4 cup honey lavender syrup

Instructions

to make the honey lavender syrup

1. Combine honey, water, and lavender in a small saucepan and cook over medium heat until mixture is bubbly and fragrant. Remove from heat, cool, and strain out lavender buds. Store syrup in the fridge for up to a week.

to make the cake

1. Preheat oven to 350° F and line a loaf pan with parchment paper. Set aside.
2. In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, and salt. Set aside. In a small measuring cup, whisk together yogurt and orange juice and set aside.
3. In the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, combine butter, sugar, honey, and orange zest. Cream for 3-4 minutes, until mixture is light and fluffy. Scrape down the sides of the bowl.
4. With the mixer on low speed, add eggs one at a time, mixing thoroughly after each addition.
5. Gradually add the dry ingredients in three additions, alternating with the yogurt/orange juice mixture. Mix until just combined and no dry streaks remain. Fold the batter a few times with a rubber spatula to ensure everything is well-mixed. Pour batter into the prepared pan and bake for 50-60 minutes, until cake is deeply golden brown and a knife or toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
6. Prick the warm cake with a fork and pour honey lavender syrup over the cake. Let cool completely before removing from the baking pan and slicing.

Notes:

This recipe makes more honey lavender syrup than you need for the recipe, but that's okay because it's so versatile. I love to add it to cocktails and I drink it in my iced coffee all summer long.

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A Fancy Strawberry Shortcake

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Grapefruit and Thyme Vermouth Spritz

I’m working on a new e-book and crossing my fingers that it will be ready for summer. I’ll give you a little hint…there are cocktails involved. :) Cocktails are the most fun and they make me feel like sitting on the back porch in the sun with friends. This one especially.

In the fall of 2019, I became a vermouth-drinker. Before that, vermouth was simply something that my dad bought every December to mix into his holiday martini. It then sat untouched on my liquor shelf until the next holiday martini go-around. Then I went to Spain and discovered that vermouth is a very fun, very delicious spirit that deserves so much more of our attention. We spent a week in Barcelona, eating fat anchovies atop barstools in tiny, hundred-year old restaurants where vermouth is a big thing. In fact, during Spain’s “happy hour”, vermouth is the drink of choice for locals. And it’s good.

A little later that year, I found myself sipping vermouth and campari on my cousin’s front porch and channeling my inner Spaniard and I was completely sold. We drink vermouth now and we’ve never looked back.

let’s talk about vermouth

If I’m being honest, I am still not a vermouth whiz, so all my knowledge comes from internet research and my friends who happen to be liquor experts. Vermouth is a fortified wine. This means it’s wine distilled with a neutral alcohol and flavored with botanicals, like flowers, herbs, spices, and citrus. Vermouth varieties are a vast range, from dry to sweet, white to red, so there’s a lot of experimentation and exploration awaiting us in the world of vermouth.

I’ve said it before on the blog, but I highly encourage you to find a local wine (or spirits store), go there often, and make friends with the people who run it. They will be invaluable to you when trying something new and stretching out of your comfort zone. (My wine guy, JP, knows me better than I know myself when it comes to wine selection and he never steers me wrong.)

If you’re like me (read: not rich), dropping a ton of money on a bottle of liquor that you aren’t sure about yet can be nerve-wracking. So don’t do it. I recommend going to your local spot and telling your knowledgeable spirits connoisseur that a random blog lady said you should try vermouth. Ask them to help you find something that: 1) would be great for both mixing and enjoying on the rocks, 2) that comes from Spain or Italy or France, and 3) won’t break the bank. I’m sure that they will be able to help you find something great. I’m currently drinking a sweet, white vermouth from Italy with lots of floral notes and it’s excellent (especially in this cocktail).

to make the cocktail

This grapefruit thyme vermouth spritz is simple, floral, and a great way to celebrate spring. Thyme simple syrup is made by simmering fresh thyme sprigs with sugar and water. Then, you mix it with freshly squeezed grapefruit juice, your brand new bottle of vermouth, and top it off with something sparkly of your choice. It’s bright and light and perfect for those warm backyard afternoons.

Yield: makes one drink

Author: Anna Ramiz

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Grapefruit Thyme Vermouth Spritz

Prep time: 10 MinCook time: 10 MinTotal time: 20 Min

This refreshing, bubbly cocktail is the perfect spring sipper filled with grapefruit juice, thyme syrup, vermouth and sparkling water.

Ingredients

for the thyme syrup

• 1/2 cup sugar
• 1/2 cup water
• 4 sprigs fresh thyme

for the cocktails

• 1 1/2 oz sweet white vermouth
• 1 1/2 oz grapefruit juice
• 1/2 oz thyme simple syrup
• Topo Chico or other sparkling water

Instructions

1. To make the thyme syrup: Combine sugar, water, and thyme sprigs in a small saucepan. Bring mixture to a boil and cook for about 5 minutes, until sugar has completely dissolved. Strain out thyme sprigs and cool completely. Transfer to a jar and store in the refrigerator for up to a week.
2. To make the cocktails: In a glass filled with ice, stir together vermouth, grapefruit juice, and thyme syrup. Top with sparkling water and garnish with fresh thyme sprigs.

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