A pie with a beautiful lattice crust—one of the
terms you’ll find in our Pie & Pastry glossary. Photo courtesy of Cherry Marketing Institute.
While the French have the reputation as the great pastry makers, the Egyptians, who were great bread bakers, worked out the details of early pastry. Theirs was a savory pastry: a dough of flour and water paste to wrap around meat and soak up the juices as it cooked. Pastry was further developed in the Middle East and brought to Europe by the Muslims in the 7th century. By medieval times, pies had developed, and the pastry was used to provide a casing for the various fillings. By the 17th century both flaky and puff pastries were in use, with pastry chefs working intricate patterns on the crusts. And thank goodness, because who doesn’t enjoy a great piece of pie!
But do you know the difference between short crust and plain pastry crust? The difference between puff pastry and phyllo? A cobbler and a crisp? And what is a Black Bottom Pie, anyway? Explore the world of baked wonders in THE NIBBLE’s newest food glossary, the nine-page Pie & Pastry glossary.
Make a delicious, low-calorie fruit soup by puréeing 2 pounds of cantaloupe (two melons—reserve some melon balls for garnish). Then add 3/4 cup of herbal fruit tea and 1 to 2 tablespoons of lime juice. Garnish with chopped mint and melon balls or berries. Enjoy it at any meal as a first course or dessert, or anytime as a snack. For protein, add fat-free plain yogurt, which you can sweeten with a no-cal sweetener. If the cantaloupe isn’t sweet enough, add a small amount of sweetener to the soup, too. This is one of our favorite diet treats!
Freedom ice cream from Sheer Bliss is red, white and blue: vanilla ice cream with red and blue swirls of pomegranate and blueberry. It’s the perfect flavor for an Independence Day celebration (it’s all natural and certified kosher, too).
Sheer Bliss is available at fine food stores nationwide; you can find a store locator on the website, SheerBlissIceCream.com. If you live near a Publix store in the Southeast, there’s a two-for-one special beginning July 2, in honor of AmVets, the veterans service organization.
Red, white and blue ingredients create the perfect July Fourth dessert. Photo courtesy Dove Chocolate Discoveries.
Not only are berries, such as strawberries and blueberries, in season during the Fourth of July, but they also come in patriotic colors, making them great ingredients in recipes you can make for your Independence Day celebrations, such as this White Chocolate Covered Strawberries recipe, courtesy of Dove Chocolate Discoveries. INGREDIENTS
1 pound fresh strawberries
8 ounces white chocolate
Blue-colored sugar
Parchment paper
Chocolate tempering machine or substitute
PREPARATION
1. Wash and completely dry strawberries.
2. For optimum results, temper chocolate in a chocolate tempering machine. If you don’t own one, simply melt the chocolate in a microwave oven or double boiler.
3. Holding a strawberry by the stem, dip about half of it in chocolate. Give it a quick twist, shake off excess and point it at the ceiling for a second to be sure the chocolate adheres.
4. Before chocolate dries, dip tip of strawberry into blue-colored sugar (available in the cake-decorating aisle of grocery store, or online). Place on parchment paper to set up and cool. If set up seems slow, place in refrigerator for 3 to 5 minutes.
Note: chocolate-covered strawberries are best enjoyed the day they are made.
Check out more of our special July Fourth recipes:
Turn your regular recipe into an Independence Day celebration by using blue and red tortilla chips and adding some blue cheese or goat cheese, along with white Cheddar or other good white melting cheese. Think of the Red, White and Blue theme for Labor Day and Memorial Day, too.
