Dessert From My Blanket Fort: Cookies and Cream

Welcome to another recipe swap!

Every month, I release an original recipe from a vintage cookbook, All Day Singin' And Dinner On The Ground, a junk store find, and we each update and remake it in our own creative ways. This time around, we embraced "Jelly Cake", an old-fashioned layer cake. Our crew is immensely talented and diverse, as you'll see in the interpretations of this humble recipe by:  Dennis, Toni, Sabrina, Lora, Lindsay, Mari, Crissy and Lauren, Pola, Jamie, Claire, Shari, Joy, Monique, Linda, Priya, Rachel, Alli, Katy, Lana, Emily, Krissy and Jaclyn. Visit the swap page for everyone's bios and please visit all of our blogs to let us all know what you think of our inventions!

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It happens every summer and throughout the year when I'm feeling overwhelmed with work and life; the pull from the center of my chest towards my place in Burwell. The old library is my adult blanket fort, but with booze, room for ten, my cookbook collection and a new kitchen. The last time I was in residence (a summer ago), I went to the Chokecherry Jamboree in neighboring Sargent, Nebraska, a weekend-long celebration of its namesake, complete with vendors and a Little Miss Chokecherry pageant. Chokecherry bushes are abundant in the Sandhills of Nebraska, producing small, sour, juicy red berries. When I purchased this jelly at the festival, I also purchased two chokecherry bushes and planted them in my yard in Burwell. As soon as next summer I may be harvesting some of my own chokecherries and pairing them with peaches or apricots in pie. For now, 1,500 miles away from my sanctuary on the plains, I have jelly that one Linda Osborn lovingly put up for us to enjoy later. The resulting recipe is like most plains recipes and like the original Jelly Cake recipe; simple and understated, yet can be dressed up for company and served with coffee.

Chokecherry Jelly

Mixed Berries, Cookies and Chokecherry Whipped Cream
Serves: 4

Equipment:
Large short-walled rammekin, about 5" diameter
whisk
stainless steel bowl

Ingredients:
One package ladyfinger cookies
One pint fresh mixed berries
One pint heavy whipping cream
2 Tablespoons jelly or jam, your choice, stirred to break up

Optional:
maple syrup

Rinse and pat dry the berries. In a chilled stainless steel bowl, pour one pint of heavy whipping cream.  Add jelly, and whisk until the cream forms stiff peaks but is still glossy. Take ladyfinger cookies and line the walls of the rammekin with them, using a dollop of cream on the bottom of the rammekin to hold them in place. Once into position, carefully use a spatula or pipe cream in using a plastic bag with the end snipped off until cream reaches just more than 3/4 of the way up the ladyfingers. Smooth, top with berries, and chill the dessert for about an hour to set, reserving leftover berries and cookies to add to individual bowls of berries, cookies and cream.  If you like, drizzle with a little maple syrup and serve with fresh-brewed coffee.

Meyer Lemon Curd Shortcakes with Orange Flower Water Glaze and Fresh Fruit

Welcome back to another recipe swap!

From Lemon Poppyseed cake with a Pinot Gris glaze by Mari of The Unexpected Harvest, Chef Dennis' Italian lemon Pear Cake, Rosemarried's grapefruit cupcakes with her own candied peel, The Tomato Tart's rosemary-lemon-caramel cake combination, Boulder Locavore's gluten-free cardamom-orange cake, to Spicy Nay's lemon-lavender cupcakes with cream cheese frosting, these recipes remind me of why I started the whole project in the first place; to see where our imaginations run as chefs when presented with the same recipe to develop.  (For a full run-down of these amazing swappers and a little swap history, check out the Recipe Swaps page.)

I made:

Meyer Lemon Curd Shortcakes with Orange Flower Water Glaze and Fresh Fruit

Serves: 12.  (Why so many? This is a great recipe to use when you are responsible for a dinner party dessert. It is elegant on the plate and very easy to make.)