Pascale's Kitchen: Fun summer desserts

Now that the kids are out of school for the summer and either going to camp or hanging out around the house, this is a great time to get organized and ready for fun baking sessions that help you prepare tasty cakes that you can take with you on outings to the forest or the beach – or to eat straightaway in your air-conditioned home.

This is the time of year to reorganize your pantry and fridge so that you have the right ingredients for making light and refreshing summer dishes with cheese, vegetables, pasta and fish that won’t make you feel heavy or overheated. When it’s hot out, it’s best to spend as little time as possible in the kitchen, and a little organization ahead of time can make this possible. Of course, you should prepare easy and quick dishes and make every effort to not use your oven, so your kitchen doesn’t get overheated.

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To this end, this week I’m bringing you three dessert recipes that are simple, quick and tasty. The first recipe is fried filo dough stuffed with sweet potato, eggplant and cheese. This dish is usually prepared with an egg over easy.

Filo dough, which is featured often in North African cuisine, comes in thin, crispy sheets, which are sometimes referred to as brik or burika. They are traditionally filled with an egg cooked over easy or with a spicy potato mixture, and then fried.

Filo dough can be purchased in any grocery store, and the packages usually contain 20 to 25 sheets of dough.

In the recipe I’ve chosen here, the filo dough is filled with sweet potato, eggplant and cheese. Really, though, you can fill the dough with any cooked vegetables you desire.

The second recipe is for roasted apricots with ice cream. This easy-to-prepare dessert seamlessly combines a hot element with a cold one.

And if you’re looking for the perfect dessert to eat for Shabbat morning, you should definitely try the mini cheesecakes with jam that I explain how to make in the third recipe. These cooked cheesecakes are baked with a dollop of jam stuffed in the middle, and are meant to be served cold. The combination of the cheese with the jam makes for an extremely pleasing taste.

Makes 6 servings.

10 apricots, pitted and halved

2 heaping Tbsp. demerara sugar

2 packets vanilla sugar

Zest and juice from 1 orange (about 1 cup juice)

1 stick of vanilla

Quality vanilla ice cream

Place the apricot halves on a baking tray and sprinkle with demerara sugar, vanilla sugar and half of the orange zest. Pour the orange juice on top and add the vanilla stick.

Stir gently and then place the tray on the lowest rack of an oven that has been preheated to 180° and bake for 15 minutes. If the apricots seem softened in less time, remove them from the oven. Otherwise, continue roasting them.

Remove from the oven and let cool. Take the ice cream out of the freezer a few minutes ahead of time so it has time to soften.

Serve the apricots together with the ice cream in a small bowl.

 

Makes 8 servings.

8 filo dough sheets

1 sweet potato, peeled, cut into medium cubes, cooked in salted water until softened, or baked in the oven

1 medium eggplant, peeled, cut into small cubes, fried in hot oil

¾ cup salty cheese, cut into small cubes

½ cup grated hard cheese (optional)

½ cup green or black pitted olives

No seasoning necessary.

Prepare all the filling ingredients ahead of time. Place the sweet potato, eggplant, cheeses and olives on a plate (make sure the sweet potato and eggplant have cooled).

Pour oil into a large frying pan (enough for frying schnitzel) and heat.

Spread a sheet of filo dough on your work surface, and place a spoonful of each of the filling ingredients – sweet potato, eggplant, cheeses and olives – in the center of the dough. Fold the dough over, sealing the filling inside, and fry on both sides. Serve hot.

If you are not serving the pastry straightaway, do not cover the pan, since the steam would cause the dough to lose its crispiness.

 

Makes 6-8 small cakes, or a tray of muffins.

3 containers (750 gr.) white spread cheese 5% fat

1 container sour cream

5 eggs, separated

3 packets vanilla sugar

1 Tbsp. lemon zest

3 Tbsp. flour, sifted

1 cup sugar

Addition:

1 cup strawberry or blueberry jam

Topping:

Powdered sugar

Add cheese, sour cream, egg yolks, vanilla sugar, lemon zest, flour, ½ cup sugar to large bowl. Mix well.

Whip the egg whites with an electric mixer on high speed. Gradually add the rest of the sugar. Whip until stiff peaks form.

Gently fold one-third of the egg whites into the mixture, then another third and then the last third.

Grease the oven trays, then pour the mixture into the molds so that they are ¾ full. Take a teaspoonful of jam and push it into the middle of each cake.

Bake in an oven that has been preheated to 200° for 10 minutes. Lower the temperature to 170° and continue baking for another 40 minutes. Let cool.

Just before serving, sprinkle with powdered sugar.

 

TiPascale