Macaroon Tart

The Macaroon Tart from Super Natural Every Day is a simple sweet treat that will please anyone who loves coconut.  A buttery tart base packed with coconut flakes is topped with a layer of blackberries and snowy macaroon tufts that turn a delicious golden brown when baked.  Chopped pistachios provide a beautiful color contrast to the purple blackberries.

I made this for my grandma's birthday and then again for Mother's Day, and it was a huge hit both times.  The first time, I lazily opted not to halve the blackberries, instead scattering them over the tart.  This was a mistake because they should have been in a layer covering the entire tart base, to ensure that every bite contained some blackberry goodness.  I fixed this the second time around and I feel that it was worth the extra step.  Even with the tedious task of halving tons of tiny berries, this is still quite a quick dessert.  A few extra notes: the pistachios don't shine here in terms of flavor, but are visually crucial to the dish, and in place of a tart pan I used a medium bar pan (stoneware).  I may try coconut oil in place of the butter next time - it seems like an appropriate substitution.

Buckwheat and Amaranth Muffins

Not too long ago I posted about Steel Cut Oatmeal and Blueberry Muffins that I made after I saw the extremely exciting MUFFIN feature in the Recipes for Health section of the NY Times.  These Buckwheat and Amaranth Muffins are another recipe from that series that I had been just dying to try.  You can't see them in the picture, but these muffins have big blackberry-bombs in them.  In fact, 3 or 4 of the muffins had a big chunk fall out the bottom because the blackberry was a bit too close to the edge.  Next time I'll put a small scoop of batter in each cup before I even mix in the blackberries.  And yes, there will be a next time, because these were delicious.

Peach and Blackberry Crisp

I had some peaches from the market sitting on my counter, begging to be used.  I didn't want to eat five peaches at that moment and I have been craving a baked fruity dessert for quite some time now.  I recently saw this peach and blackberry cobbler, which got me thinking that I should use the blackberries in my fridge in this baked dessert.  I didn't want to make a cobbler with a biscuit topping, though - I was looking for more of a crisp/strudel type topping.  I visited a few of my favorite recipe sources online and found this plum and peach crisp recipe, which I had wanted to try last year when I first started cooking.  I decided to use that recipe as a base.  I didn't measure the fruit at all, but stuck with the 1/4 cup of sugar.  I think the tartness of the blackberries definitely needed it.  The "crisp" topping was not exactly crisp - it was more like a chewy oatmeal cookie, which was absolutely delicious!  This was a fun, impromptu dessert (and breakfast!) which can definitely be made again and with other fruit as well.  I think some apples would be delicious in the fall/winter - maybe with some cinnamon - the oatmeal cookie-like topping would go great with apple and cinnamon, and maybe I'll add some walnuts too.  There are so many ideas and flavor profiles to play with here!  (I would be happy to take some suggestions, too.)